Sunderland face another difficult test in the Championship this weekend as they head to St Mary's to take on promotion chasing Southampton.

Mike Dodds remains without a win since taking back over as Sunderland's interim head coach last month after Sunderland fell to a narrow defeat in midweek against Championship leaders Leicester City.

Defeat to the Foxes was a fifth consecutive league defeat for Sunderland for the first time since 2015 but Dodds was keen to take the positives from his side's second half performance as they pushed the league leaders hard for an equaliser. 

"That's five [defeats] on the bounce now and we have to buck that trend as soon as possible," said Dodds. "But I do feel, the second half in particular, and I said this in my last spell around what is a Sunderland team, I think we gave a snapshot in the second half in terms of a blueprint to how we want to play, how I want to play and how the players want to play.

"I've had them now for three games and all three games have got 'L's' by the result which I'm conscious of, but at the same time I feel like each game we've got better and better. I'm going to take loads of positives from that."

 

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Defeat, however, leaves Sunderland languishing in mid-table, with their hopes of reaching the play-offs all but gone as they sit 10 points adrift of the top six. More worryingly, perhaps, is the fact Sunderland are just nine points above the bottom three in the Championship ahead of their trip to the South Coast.

Sunderland sit second bottom of the Championship's form table with just seven points from their last 10 games and Dodds will be without his captain, Luke O'Nien, this weekend who misses out through suspension.

In our latest We Are Sunderland briefing, Joe Ramage and Matty Hewitt preview Sunderland's fixture with Southampton, their need for a win, the impact of O'Nien and more.

You can watch the video below or view via our YouTube channel: