SUNDERLAND won't be appointing a new head coach until the summer, with Mike Dodds confirming he fully expects to remain in charge until the end of the season.

Interim head coach Dodds says Black Cats bosses are still going through the process of assessing and speaking to candidates for the job - but the new man won't be in place before the end of the season.

It always appeared likely that Sunderland would wait until the summer to make an appointment, but a dismal run of just one win in nine games and the manner of Monday's 5-1 hammering at home to Blackburn has led to questions about whether the club's hierarchy need to act now in a bid to lift spirits among supporters.

But Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus won't be rushed.

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Asked whether he still expects to be in charge until the end of the season, Dodds said in his press conference on Friday: "Yeah, I do."

He added: "They're going through a recruitment process at the moment. My focus is on the team.

"With all due respect I was really hurt by Monday. I stand at the side of the pitch and take great pride in the way I set football teams up. That's the first time in a long, long time I've stood at the side of the pitch and been embarrassed.

"I have to correct that, so my focus has been purely on making sure we right some wrongs."

Reims boss Will Still and Sheffield Wednesday head coach Danny Rohl are both said to be on Sunderland's radar, as is former Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom, who has been a candidate for the Stadium of Light vacancy in the past.