Scowen lifts lid on Cats’ dressing room mood amid the winless run
Josh Scowen says he believes that the Sunderland dressing room remain confident of achieving promotion – despite a six-game winless run.
The Black Cats haven’t won since the visit of Oxford United on Good Friday, and twice squandered the lead against Accrington Stanley on Saturday.
And with automatic promotion now all-but out of the equation, Scowen and his teammates are set for the lottery of the play-offs.
But the midfielder insists that despite recent form, the mood hasn’t dipped too low within the dressing room.
"It’s just trying to stay confident, which I think the lads are,” he said.
"Obviously we’re a bit disappointed in our performance in the second half against Accrington, but there’s a lot of experienced lads in there who have been here before.
"We’ll come out again on Tuesday fighting for the three points.
"There probably is [people writing us off], but it’s probably been like that all season,” he added.
“But we’ve shown what we’re about, we know we’re good enough to win and that’s the self-belief that we have.”
The draw with Stanley saw Sunderland squander a 2-0 half-time lead, and then a 3-2 advantage with only minutes left on the clock.
And Scowen didn’t shy away from the disappointment
of the results in his postmatch verdict.
"It was disappointing in the end after a very good first half, getting the two goals and creating a lot more chances as well,” he admitted.
"Second half we weren’t good enough and that gave them the leg up to get back in the game.
"First half we controlled the game and had more chances, but the second half they came out and went a bit more direct and got in behind us.
"That changed the game and we just couldn’t seem to deal with it today.
"We feel disappointed and it’s two points dropped.
"Every game we try and take the positives out and try and learn from the negatives,” he continued.
"The last couple of performances I think we’ve been really good, we’ve just been unlucky with a couple of mistakes or a bit of luck.
"We’ll go, look at this game and take the positives out of it and learn from the mistakes.”
Sunderland now turn their attentions to the visit of Blackpool on Tuesday evening, with Scowen believing this is a game that the side simply have to win.
While Lee Johnson’s outfit look set to clinch a play-off place, it is not yet mathematically secure – and achieving that will be the club’s priority.
And so too do they want to ensure that they enter the play-offs in some vein of form.
"Momentum is key going into the play-offs and that’s what we’re trying to build now,” said Scowen.
"We have to win on Tuesday and the boys will build that confidence up.
"We’re more than capable of coming away with three points.
“We just need to win these next three games and go into the play-offs full of confidence.
"That’s the plan now. We’ve some good performances, we’ve just been a bit unlucky.”