Sunderland captain John O'Shea believes that there were plenty of positives to take away from their narrow 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.
That is exactly what he plans on doing, as he insists they must take the plus points into future performances.
Didn't deserve to lose
It was a deflected cross that fell to the path of Sergio Aguero which created the visitors' only goal of the game, a somewhat fortunate bounce in the early stages of the match proved to be enough for them to take all three points. John O'Shea believes his side "didn't deserve to lose".
He was proud that his team "reacted well" to going behind against one of the strongest teams in the league, as they battled and gave as good as they got. Sunderland proved to be a thorn in the City side throughout the entire 90 minutes.
O'Shea believes that "on another night [Sunderland] could have easily got a point". But it wasn't to be, despite the fact that they forced Joe Hart to "pull off some very good saves", meaning they failed to find the back of the net.
Cursing missed chances
Even though O'Shea was happy with the performance on show against the title challengers, he still believes the Black Cats "need to take chances" in order to punish teams and capitalize on the pressure they create.
"The big thing at the end of the game is we didn't score," O'Shea said. In the end, that is what it boiled down to; just one goal would have earned them a crucial point in a relegation battle that is intensifying by the second.
However, with plenty of new faces debuting, it was good to see that the spirit didn't change and the new boys were putting up as much of a fight as players such as himself, who have been at the club for years.
O'Shea believed they made"great debuts" but it will now be crucial that they continue that level of performance, and the club as a whole begin picking up points.