Ross embarrassed by performance of his Cats team
Jack Ross admitted the manner of the Lincoln City defeat was ‘embarrassing’ for him.
In what is proving to be a fiercely competitive League One, the Black Cats already find themselves eight points adrift of league.
Sunderland were second best and didn’t deserve anything at Lincoln, a Jon McLaughlin own goal followed by Tyler Walker’s clinical second.
Ross is coming under intensive fire and pressure from a frustrated fanbase, with a significant section now calling for him to be sacked.
When quizzed on the eight-point gap to top spot, Ross said: “We want to be challenging for promotion so we can’t say that that is okay. We need to be winning games.
“It’s not just about the defeat because we could have come here, played well, and lost, but it’s the manner of it.
“It’s probably as disappointing as I have seen us. It’s very obvious to say that we need to do so much better than that to win games in this league."
Ross added: “I take pride in what I have done here in management and in the teams I have put out on the park and there have only been a very few occasions in which I have been as disappointed as this.
“I keep saying ‘me’, because it is my responsibility - I keep protecting my players from it, because it is me. It is my job to make them better than that and they weren’t good.”
Ross was facing the brunt of the criticism but the performance of the Sunderland players left a lot to be desired, the players performing well below their usual levels.