Sunderland retain Sheffield United target despite late Leeds United defeat dealing auto promotion hopes blow

Regis Le Bris’ exciting young Sunderland side saw their automatic promotion hopes dealt a huge blow after a late defeat at Leeds United last night saw them slip eight points behind second-placed Sheffield United. The Blades looked like regaining their position at the top of the table with two of their promotion rivals locked at 1-1 going into the final minutes at Elland Road.

But substitute Pascal Struijk struck in the 95th minute to send Leeds fans wild and restore his side’s two-point advantage over the Blades ahead of next Monday’s seismic clash between the two Yorkshire rivals at Bramall Lane. Sunderland had earlier led through Wilson Isidor before Struijk’s equaliser, with watching Unitedites torn over the best result for their own promotion hopes.

Many Sunderland supporters have now resigned themselves to a play-off push, with obdurate Burnley three points ahead of them in third. But speaking after full-time, boss Le Bris insists that defeat to a “very good” Leeds side has not changed his side’s focus for the final 13 games of the campaign.

"It's still the same focus for us,” Le Bris said. “A defeat here won't change our way of thinking. We are still in a good place and I think this team is improving game after game, even after a tough game like this one. The next layer for us is just winning at home in our next game. After that, we will see.

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"I think it shows that we need a little bit more depth in our squad. I think this will be the case in the next few weeks because we will have two, three, four players who were injured. When they are fit again they are going to very useful for the team.

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"It was a tough second half but we need to admit that Leeds were very good. Sometimes when you play against such a strong team, sometimes you can't find the solution. We can always find the elements in the game that we can improve.

“You can learn from these experiences - I think Leeds have more experience than us and I think you could feel this in the second half and at the end of the game. We have to learn from this bad feeling and after we have analysed the game deeply, we can find the elements to improve."