Sunderland fans were completely wrong about one thing during the 2-1 win over Stoke City on Saturday afternoon.
Black Cats fans would have been feeling nervous as the game reached the latter stages, with the club set to extend their winless run to seven matches.
But Tommy Watson saved the day with his second goal of the fixture – and his senior career – with four minutes to go of normal time.
This meant manager Regis Le Bris was right not to listen to Sunderland fans about something in particular.
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Sunderland fans were wrong about one thing
Black Cats supporters were frustrated with Le Bris during the second half versus Stoke for not making more substitutions – at the Stadium of Light and on social media.
Many of them took to X to voice their concerns about the Frenchman’s stubbornness.
One said: “Time to freshen up but as usual RLB won’t change anything until 80.” Another added: “Get some fresh legs on the pitch man.”
A Sunderland fan posted: What is the manager waiting for?! Make a bloody change!!! 1-1 with Stoke is an absolutely s___ result mind!”
“Our manager is allergic to using subs,” one wrote. “Need to do what Millwall did to us – caution to the wind get some attacking players on,” tweeted another supporter.
However, the Frenchman chose to wait until the 79th minute to call on his bench and did not make another change until injury time.
This turned out to be the correct decision as the winning goal came from two attacking players who stayed on the pitch until the very end.
The ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ approach worked for Regis Le Bris
The obvious thing to do when chasing a second-half goal is to make changes but, as Saturday proved, that is not the only solution.
Especially when chance creation is not a problem, as it wasn’t for Sunderland throughout the match against Stoke, sometimes it’s best to keep going with the same team.
Patrick Roberts had been thriving down the right wing and left-winger Tommy Watson could’ve had a hat-trick before his late goal.
Le Bris stuck with them and it certainly paid off as the former set up the latter with only a handful of minutes remaining.