Sunderland caretaker boss Ricky Sbragia says the players know he's no soft touch.

He said: "I can lose my rag, but I try not to. If I lose my rag, in general, I don't think it's good for me to show it in front of the players. I'd rather do that individually than have a go at them collectively.

"If we had lost on Saturday I would have tried to be more positive, but that hasn't happened, I think they know in general where the rules start and end. If you step over the line, I deal with it, but it's not a big inquest.

"You're late, there's the fine, there's a structure. Don't say to me there was a pile-up on the motorway, because I travel early morning to get here, so we deal with that. That was one of the concerns, they might have thought we're a soft touch - we're not.

"But we have a lot of respect for them and they do for us. We treat them like adults. We try and get the team to deal with that sometimes. If someone's late it's, 'f*****g hell you're late, you shouldn't be late.' If they are letting you down on the training pitch they are likely to let you down in a match as well."