Neil Warnock offers Regis Le Bris advice after Sunderland's late Leeds United loss | OneFootball

Neil Warnock has offered Régis Le Bris his advice after Sunderland's 2-1 loss to Leeds United on Monday

Neil Warnock has claimed that Régis Le Bris needs to lighten the mood in the Sunderland dressing room following the nature of their loss to Leeds United.

The Whites scored a stoppage-time winner courtesy of Pascal Struijk to take all three points at Elland Road in a huge clash in the automatic promotion race.

The defender had also scored the equaliser in the 78th minute to peg back Sunderland to 1-1, after Wilson Isidor had given the Black Cats a first-half lead.

The comeback victory for Daniel Farke’s team has left the Wearside outfit 10 points adrift of the league leaders and eight behind second-place Sheffield United.

Neil Warnock offers advice to Régis Le Bris

Speaking in the Sky Sports studio after the game, Warnock suggested that Le Bris now has to pick his squad back up from a low point due to the nature of the loss.

He believes lightening the mood in training will help the team avoid falling into a slump, praising their general performance at Elland Road despite the defeat.

“It’s a good test for [Régis Le Bris] now at Sunderland,” said Warnock.

“There was nothing wrong with the performance but they’ve got beat.

“They’re as sick as parrots now.

“They’re driving back up to Sunderland now and he’s got to be really bright.

“He’s got to get that out of his system before their next training session and just think about what they’ve done well this year, not what they’ve done tonight.

“He’s got to make it lighthearted and a bit of fun on the training ground for a few days because they’ve done brilliantly tonight.”

Sunderland suffered their first league defeat in eight games on Monday night, leaving them fourth and eight points behind the automatic promotion places.

Sickening result can’t have wider impact at Sunderland

A win at Elland Road would have obviously been massive for Sunderland had they been able to hold out, so losing it all at the death is a bitter pill to swallow.

Automatic promotion now looks like a real outside shot with 13 games still to play, putting the club in a difficult position.

The gap to fifth place Blackburn Rovers is 11 points, so Le Bris’ side should feel secure in their position in a play-off place.

Sunderland now have to juggle staying in form to ensure a top-four finish, but also need to be wary about trying to peak for the play-offs, so that will be a real test for the French coach because that’s now looking like the club’s best route to Premier League football.