Simon Grayson shares what he told his Sunderland players after losing to Nottingham Forest

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Sunderland were beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night.

Sunderland boss Simon Grayson has told The Chronicle that he has told his players to take the positives out of Tuesday’s defeat to Nottingham Forest.

The Black Cats lost 2-1 at home to Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon, making it three defeats in a row for Grayson’s side – and that run has now turned to four straight defeats.

Sunderland hosted Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, and slipped to a late defeat, as former Black Cats striker Daryl Murphy struck late on to give Forest a 1-0 victory.

Daryl Murphy of Nottingham Forest

Forest may have had more of the ball, but Sunderland had 14 shots at goal, with just three on target ultimately proving to be their downfall as Forest took their big chance when it came late in the day.

Mark Warburton’s men went away from Wearside with all three points, but it’s now four defeats in a row for Sunderland, who have slipped back into old habits after an initially promising start to life under Grayson.

The former Preston boss must now work to get Sunderland out of this run of results, with some fans already questioning whether Grayson is cut out for such a big job.

After the final whistle, Grayson spoke to The Chronicle about the game, admitting that he felt it’s the most frustrating result so far this season as his players actually responded well to Saturday’s defeat, but simply couldn’t put the ball in the net.

Grayson added that he told his players to keep their chins up and take the positives out of the game, but with no points from the a possible 12, that’s certainly easier said than done.

“It’s probably the most frustrating result that we’ve had because we didn’t deserve to lose that game tonight, without a shadow of a doubt,” said Grayson . “I thought the players responded from Saturday, they showed a lot of bravery with and without the ball, they were confident, so it is a kick in the teeth when you lose a game like that. We didn’t get the breaks when we needed things to fall in the 18-yard box, and then the one mistake that we made throughout the whole of the night, we got punished for.”

“When you’re in a run of losing games, that can happen, and it happened tonight. I think they are more disappointed than they have been recently because they know that they didn’t deserve that tonight. I’ve just told them that they need to stay positive and take the positives out of the game. There were some good individual performances tonight, the players didn’t go missing, they didn’t not want to get on the ball, they tried to make things happen. We didn’t have to defend too much because we were the dominant team, but when things are going against you, they go against you,” he added.