Sunderland desperately in need of a win

CATS MUST BREAK THEIR LOSING RUN

MIKE Dodds is such a likeable man and he gives a good impression of someone who believes in what he is saying.

The only problem for the Sunderland interim head coach is that you can continue to deliver positive soundbites all you like but the results tell a different story.

You can tell he’s getting weary of saying the same things when the results remain the same.

Six defeats in a row for the club – an 18-year worst – and four under his charge. It doesn’t make good reading.

He says that as long as the players keep to the process, all will come good in the end. Except if the process isn’t working, why should anyone expect a different outcome?

When you look at the hand he has been dealt, you can understand his frustration.

As I’ve said before, football is essentially about players.

So when you consider the best players Sunderland have had in the last two or three years were absent it’s no surprise they can’t win.

Ross Stewart and Alex Pritchard have both left and the other three bigger names, Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts and Luke O’nien, were absent, with two injuries and a suspension for the latter.

He has strikers that can’t score goals and defenders making errors in an unforgiving Championship where the matches come along in relentless fashion.

Other injuries haven’t helped and there is now a doubt over Dan Ballard, who limped off on Saturday.

There were bright moments at Southampton, but perplexing ones too.

Mason Burstow did superbly well to get beyond the Saints defence in the early stages but showed his complete lack of confidence when attempting a side-footed finish that flew nowhere near the far post, and with two players begging for a square pass.

Romain Mundle’s goal came from sheer persistence and it was a fantastic effort from Jobe Bellingham to level the scores and briefly give the Black Cats some hope. But defensively they were all at sea again at times.

Bellingham committed a cardinal sin in heading a Southampton ball coming into the box across his own six-yard line. It would have been an excellent assist in an attacking sense because he set up Southampton’s Jan Bednarek for a free header, which Anthony Patterson kept out with a super save only for the rebound to be turned in.

Patterson’s skewed clearance straight to Stuart Armstrong was almost costly as a swift pass to Adam Armstrong ended with the ball being skied over the bar.

Trai Hume was partly culpable for Southampton’s second goal. He simply passed the ball straight to the opposition and when the move progressed into the penalty area, Chris Rigg dived in recklessly to give away the penalty.

The visitors simply couldn’t contain the hosts late on as they went down to another defeat.

Dodds now has a young, threadbare squad who need to find a win from somewhere to give the place a lift. What was one point off the play-offs has become 11 in the matter of four weeks. The worry is that the teams below are all in a desperate struggle themselves because of how tight the points situation is at the bottom.

It seems unthinkable that Sunderland could be dragged into that situation but they have shown with their last six results, things can change rapidly in football. A victory against QPR on Saturday would be welcome in more ways than one.

Interim boss Mike Dodds