Sunderland have enjoyed a fine season, securing a place in the top six and play-offs with weeks to spare, but they’ve faltered badly of late with four straight defeats after Regis Le Bris opted to rotate and freshen up his squad.
The head coach went back to his full strength side for the weekend trip to lowly Oxford, but Sunderland slumped to a 2-0 loss.
That led to Sunderland’s players “laying it on the line” in the dressing room after the game at the Kassam Stadium, and captain Neil remains fully confident the Black Cats will be back to their best for when it matters.
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“Things were said in the dressing room after that game on Saturday and that’s good.” said the midfielder.
“We don’t have long left until the play-offs so everyone laid it out on the line in there.
“We know we can beat anyone in this league on our day, we’ve turned up in the big games and I have no doubt that this squad will turn up for the biggest games of the season and our careers so far.
“We have to stick together, everyone associated with the club. We’ll be ready.”
Oxford secured Championship safety thanks to their weekend win and Neil says Sunderland can use the defeat as a learning experience.
“You’ve saw how much meant it to Oxford,” he said.
“As a team, we’ve got to look at how they’ve reacted to this game, winning it, achieving their ambitions – ours is to get promoted and we still have a massive chance to do it.
“They’ve turned up in their biggest game of the season and we have to take motivation from that, because ours is coming in two weeks.”
Sunderland have the chance to go into the play-offs on the back of a positive result when they host QPR on Saturday in the final game of the season.
Le Bris will name a full strength side, which is likely to mean Enzo Le Fee again starting on the left side of the attack.
Although Le Bris thinks Le Fee is at his best in a central role, the Roma loanee played and impressed on the left after his January arrival when Romaine Mundle and Tommy Watson were out injured.
Watson is now fit but the winger, who is leaving for Brighton in the summer, has underwhelmed in recent weeks, while Mundle is currently sidelined again.
Mundle is expected to be back for the play-offs but it’s not clear whether he’ll be deemed fit enough to start in the first leg. If he isn’t, Le Fee is likely to get the nod in that role over Watson.
“It might be his position for the play-offs but it could another one, we will have to see,” said Le Bris.
“Because of the players available now in different positions, probably now this option could be a good one and especially away because we know that it could be a very tight game and we will have to be balanced in and out of possession.
“It could be an option but we’ll see, it is not decided yet.”
