Sunderland U21 Head Coach Graeme Murty reflects on Monday’s 4-0 win over Bromley

Sunderland U21 Head Coach Graeme Murty discussed Monday’s 4-0 win over Bromley, as well as Jake Waters’ red-hot goalscoring form.

The Black Cats convincingly beat Bromley in the Premier League Cup Group H clash at Eppleton, with goals from Timur Tutierov, Harrison Jones and a brace from Waters.

When reflecting on the game, he revealed: “We were frustrated in the first half, and we didn’t deal with the conditions particularly well.

FOUR GOALS AND THREE POINTS!!!!! 😍#SAFC | #PLCup pic.twitter.com/Vjf52DkSA9

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“We make no allowances for the wind, rain, the pitch being bobbily or the ball being slick, because we expect our players to deal with the situation of the game a lot better than we did in the first half.

“We challenged our players at half time, and talked about our standards because we didn’t think we hit them consistently in the first half.

“There was brief flashes, but we were more much more ruthless in the second half, and we were much more detailed in our passing, the quality and the tempo was far, far higher.

“I thought the players accepted the challenge that we gave them at half time, and grew into the game much better in the second half.

Jake Waters has now scored five goals in his last five games after coming back from a very serious injury, with Murty saying: “You can just see the joy on his face, and you can see the fact that he is growing in confidence.

“He is someone who thrives and you can see him growing when he feels that confidence.

“He has lots of work to do, lots of things to tidy up, but he is a very diligent kid and works extremely hard.

Dinsdale → Cirkin → Waters

A fantastic fourth in the victory over Bromley! Watch the full match highlights below 👇

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“We have put a lot of emphasis on not judging where he is currently, and we have just allowed him to come back and feel more like himself.

“We think he is getting there but we don’t want to put any pressure on him at all.

“We have provided a great platform with some good players around him that’s allowed him to get some chances and it’s a good attribute to have to have a lot of goals.

“I think his goal per minute ratio must be outstanding.”

When looking at Saturday’s game against Manchester City and his side’s winning momentum, he said: “It’s great, when you look at our last few games we have Anderlecht, Bilbao, Sporting, Bromley today and now we play Man City, and then Norwich and Colchester.

“The diversity of their learning environment and challenge has been outstanding and the lads have stepped up.

“We are not expecting them to be perfect, we expect them to improve, to be diligent in their work and I think we’re reaping the benefits of the hard work that you guys don’t see.

“They will be in tomorrow to recover properly, and to make sure that they continue that education of maintaining that body that is going to hopefully put themselves in great stead for the next 15-20 years.

“We are really diligent in our teaching, our sports staff are excellent but the players have to come to the party and they have been.

“Since the start of the season the players have been attentive, diligent and really hard working, and thankfully we are seeing the fruits of that labour.”