Grant Leadbitter lived his dream on Sunday, by playing for Sunderland at Wembley. Now he says he will forget it straight away.
Leadbitter picked up a runners-up medal when Portsmouth came out on top in a penalty shoot-out to decide the Football League Trophy. So the Fencehouses midfielder will be banishing Wembley from his mind to focus on the more important job of taking his club back to the Championship.
“I won’t look back on anything,” he said when asked about the game, which finished in a 2-2 draw. “All we can think about now is Wednesday night (when the Black Cats play Accrington Stanley in League One).
“I will look forward to that and we all should.
“I want promotion. I know what we are fighting for and what our aims are, and we are fighting for the top two. That’s in our hands.
“We are six points behind (second-placed Barnsley) and have three games in hand, so let the chase begin and the challenge is there for us, we know that’s how it is going to be.
“It (Accrington) will be completely different to Wembley but that’s where we are as a club. We know that.
“We have to show the character within the squad that we know we have to get a result.”
Not that Leadbitter, who rejoined on a free transfer from Middlesbrough in January, was pretending Sunday did not hurt. Sunderland dominated the first half, but had only Aiden McGeady’s brilliant free-kick to show for it.
“We didn’t kill the game when we could have,” Leadbitter reflected. “Let’s be clear, though, we should not dwell on losing on penalties at Wembley for long and we won’t.
“We had a think about the game in the first few hours after the defeat at Wembley, we will know that we could have won it, but we didn’t. We have to move on and Wednesday night is really important for this football club.
“We have nine games to go and it is in our hands. We don’t want to lose any more football games.
“It hurt at Wembley but that’s football.
“We did some terrific things in the first half, played really well, and then they came out in the second half and put plenty of balls into our box.
“We were in a competition and we wanted to win it, we didn’t and that is the reality of the situation.
“What’s the most important thing now is we bounce back with character on Wednesday night. We have a big five weeks to look forward to and we have to attack it.”
Nine games between now and May 4 will test Sunderland’s resources, but it holds no fears for Leadbitter.
“We have a good all-round squad and we know what is required between now and the end of the season,” he commented. “We need to attack those nine games.
“When you lose a big game the best thing to do is put it right in the next game, we will have to enjoy that challenge at Accrington Stanley. That’s what football is all about, challenges and embracing those.
“We have to make sure there is no hangover and we have the players and quality within the squad to make sure there is no hangover.”
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