Dodds under no illusions about the job in hand

CARDIFF City and Blackburn Rovers will be “very similar games” according to Sunderland boss Mike Dodds as he looks to break a winless sequence stretching back seven games. The Black Cats’ interim head coach has overseen four losses and a draw in that run since taking over and is hoping the return of players from injury will bolster his squad and give everyone a lift.

The likes of Corry Evans, Bradley Dack and Patrick Roberts could be included at some stage soon, even though Jack Clarke remains unavailable. Dodds is focusing on the Easter programme as a whole, which starts today with the trip to Wales to face Cardiff.

“Cardiff, apart from the last game, are in really good form,” he said. “At Blackburn, John [Eustace] has gone in there and I watched a lot of his games at Birmingham last season and I don’t think he really got the credit for what he did at Birmingham. He did an unbelievable job for what he had at his disposal.

“Having watched Blackburn he has followed a similar kind of mantra. They are really well organised and well coached. They probably haven’t got the results they deserve.

“So, both games will be very similar. We are going to have to be good with the ball and if we’re not, both games are going to be difficult games for us. If we are good on the ball then hopefully the results will be what we want them to be.”

Dodds is clearly hurt by the recent results and reckons the point Sunderland gained against QPR was the team’s worst performance.

“It sounds bizarre but the game we got a point from is the one I was most disappointed with,” he reflected. “It’s not lost on me that we got a draw to stop the run of defeats. But as a coach I want my team to be reflective of me and it wasn’t against QPR.”

His main motivation is to get a victory on the board and he added: “Regardless of availability with injuries and suspensions, the aim is to win every game. The Southampton game was an example of that, when we got the game back to 2-2.

“The dilemma in my head as a coach is, ‘do you make a change, a tactical change as a sub to maybe see out a 2-2?’ Obviously I didn’t do that as I felt the game was in the ascendancy for us so we tried to push on, we ended up losing 4-2, and I looked like an idiot.”