Patrick Roberts' request to play for Sunderland U23s shows his determination to play in the run-in

Patrick Roberts request to play in Sunderland U23s is a sign of his determination to play a part in the League One run-in, says Alex Neil. Roberts joined the Black Cats from Manchester City in the January transfer window but is one of a group of players - which also includes Jermain Defoe and Jack Clarke - who arrived with very little match practice, meaning they have only been used sparingly up to now.

Roberts, for instance, has been involved in only four of Sunderland's eight games since he joined, with those four substitute outings totalling only 68 minutes. But on Monday he asked to play for the U23s against Stoke City at Eppleton in a bid to get more minutes under his belt, starting the game and playing for an hour before he was withdrawn.

"Patrick is working really hard," said Neil. "The biggest difficulty you have is when you sign someone and they have a lack of game minutes, because the simple fact is that we are now at the stage of the season where every game that ticks off, if they don't play, they arguably get further away rather than closer to fitness.

"The problem you have is that when you are not fully-fit in the first place, the importance of every match becomes greater and greater. It's hard to ask somebody to play at their peak when they are, physically, not at their peak.

"We need to eliminate the risk of putting in too many players who are not physically ready because that will jeopardise the result, and we can't afford that at this moment in time. I've been really honest with Patrick, as I have with the other lads.

"If they've had a lack of game minutes, I have told them that they are not up to speed. Patrick wanted to give himself the best chance by playing in that U23 game, which was great.

"We're