Regis Le Bris has insisted he would not be worried if Sunderland went into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs without a win in six games.
The Black Cats secured a fourth-placed finish despite slipping to a third successive defeat when they went down 1-0 at home to Blackburn on Monday and have taken just one point from the last 12 on offer ahead of their final two fixtures of the regular season, at Oxford and at home to QPR.
However, asked if it would concern him if his side went into the first leg of their semi-final without another victory, Le Bris said: “Not really.
“I think Southampton last year lost four or five games – one of them 5-0, I think – and they were promoted, so every situation is unique and ours is unique as well, so we have to manage it properly.
“The question now is about the desire of the squad, the desire of the club, the desire of the fans and the connection we have together.
“This part of the project, I think, is the most important, so I hope we’ll have mainly a full squad, good energy and two games to play. We’ll see.”
The Saints actually lost three of their final four games of the league programme 12 months ago – one of them 5-0 at Leicester -before going on to beat Leeds at Wembley and Le Bris is taking heart from their experience as he welcomes back players he has rested in recent weeks with injured trio Dan Ballard, Dennis Cirkin and Romaine Mundle also making progress.
However, they were undone once again by Rovers as Tyrhys Dolan’s 33rd-minute strike ultimately settled a tight game.
By contrast, Blackburn have now won three on the trot but remain four points adrift of the top six and knowing their hopes of joining the Black Cats are faint ahead of Saturday’s final home match against Watford.
Head coach Valerien Ismael said: “We play for the three points on Saturday – that’s the only thing I’m looking at, just to stay focused on what we have to do.
“We have put ourselves now in a good position to finish the last game this season at home with a positivity, and we want to take the next step.”
