Le Bris confirms Sunderland will up intensity for play-offs

The latest North East sport headlines, from Daniel Wales.

Transcript

00:00Sunderland head coach Regis Labrice has confirmed that he believes that his side will have no

00:05problems upping the intensity as they go into the playoffs.

00:10I think naturally, being closer to the event, the intensity, the commitment, the concentration

00:20are completely different because of the event. When you play this kind of games, it's totally

00:27different. And I think we were always involved during the full season because we were consistent,

00:35I think. We lost two or three games, probably with not poor performances, but the output

00:43wasn't really good. But we were always consistent and against the top six, top five, top three,

00:53we can feel different energy because of the event. It was the case at Leeds, it was the

00:57case against Sheffield, it was the case against Burnley, maybe at Codventry, we were exhausted.

01:02But you can feel it when you play at this level, the event creates this energy, so it's not

01:11a difficult task.

01:12And Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick is of the mind that it is not a failure if

01:17Borough fail to qualify for the playoffs this season.

01:21It depends on how you judge it. I think because as a team we showed that at certain times we

01:29can be really good and we can be one of the better teams in the league, that gives expectation, that

01:36gives a lot of belief. And then over time, maybe the consistency we haven't had, so your hopes are a

01:45little bit higher, but I think that's something you've got to live with. I don't necessarily think

01:50it's unsuccessful, I think it is what the league is, and I think history shows that over the last

01:55year for, I don't know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 years, it's difficult getting the playoffs,

02:00I'm guessing, what, three times maybe? So that's the challenge we're facing, it's tough to be there,

02:07you know, and we were close, we've been stable, we've been consistent in the last two years,

02:12one was in, one was just missed.