Regis Le Bris wants his Sunderland team to be more clinical to take away the importance of refereeing decisions such as the one at Derby County when Wilson Isidor was controversially denied a goal.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Championship clash with bottom side Plymouth Argyle, the Black Cats head coach revealed he is no clearer to understanding why the goal was disallowed and that he had been given no explanation by officials.

“We didn’t use VAR,” he smiled. “So it was very difficult to understand and I still don’t know. But the only focus we can have is about us.

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“It’s difficult to talk about referees or opponents or something else. What we could have controlled better is our main subject I think.

“We started a little slowly in the first 15 minutes to apply good pressure. It was an unexpected shape. Then we controlled the second part of the first half. It was good and probably we should have scored a second goal. This part of our game we have to improve. When we create chances we have to be more clinical.

“If we had done that then the other goal wouldn’t have been the main subject because it’s 2-0 or 3-0 and it’s then like a detail in the story. We still have plenty of room for improvement and that’s my main focus.”

Keeping pace with Burnley – who thrashed Plymouth 5-0 on Wednesday night – Sheffield United and Leeds United is the key and he added: “The pace at the top is very impressive. We need to prove we can be in that bracket and you have to win, win, win.

"Maybe you can lose or draw and then you have to win, win again to gain the momentum. It is our next goal to achieve now. We have to prove we deserve to be there at this stage of the season.

“Maybe Burnley did that very well at Plymouth. In the first half they scored five and okay that’s fine, you know this team is ready to be in that sprint. And we have to show we deserve to be there and are ready too.”

Heading into the next few weeks, the games are not so frequent after a busy spell. Sunderland will get a chance to do some extra work on the training ground, as well as rest and recuperate, which Le Briss will welcome.

He added: “It will be different because we managed properly this period of many games in a row. The team was good and the technical staff, we appreciated this part of the season.

"Now it’s different and we have time to analyse our performances. And work on the different subjects but it will be the same for our opponents. It’s always a balanced situation. It will be different and I hope we keep our momentum.”