The Black Cats’ hopes of securing automatic promotion suffered a massive blow on Saturday as they crashed to their first home defeat of the season at the hands of Hull City.
The loss leaves Regis Le Bris’ side eight points adrift of second-placed Sheffield United, a gap that will increase further if the Blades take anything from this evening’s top-of-the-table clash with Leeds United.
With 12 more games to play, and with a 12-point gap separating them from seventh-placed Coventry City, Sunderland now look extremely likely to finish in the play-offs, but O’Nien will not be looking at the next couple of months as a warm-up for an end-of-season shootout.
“There’s a hell of a lot of work to do,” he said. “When you win a game, if you go into first or second, it’s irrelevant. It’s where you are on the 46th game that’s the most important.
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“So, there’s a lot of minutes to be played, a lot of points to get picked up and our focus isn’t just to win a game, look at the table and get all emotional. It’s win, lose, reflect, make sure the team moves forward and go towards the next game.”
Saturday’s loss came courtesy of Anthony Patterson’s 18th-minute own goal, with the goalkeeper fumbling a corner into his own net. The Black Cats failed to seriously threaten the Hull goal, and O’Nien admits there was a collective sense of disappointment in the dressing room after the game.
“There were a few grumblings,” he said. “I don’t like losing football games, and I think it’s just human nature to not win and to grumble.
“You always want to win, and you always want to demand from each other. You want to be better. As long as you do it in a healthy and positive way, where we’re all pulling in the right direction, that’s all you can do.”
