Jack Ross reveals Sunderland’s plan to solve goalscoring problem ahead of Blackpool clash

The Black Cats have failed to score more than once in a League One fixture since December 15 - when they put two past Bristol Rovers at the Stadium of Light.

And their problems in front of goal have come back to bite Sunderland in recent weeks, with dropped points at Scunthorpe and Oxford both in part down to a lack of a cutting edge in the final third.

Work continues at the Academy of Light to try and eradicate the issue, with Ross insisting that there is plenty of unseen working continuing as the Wearsiders look to hit the goal trail once again.

But he has warned that there will be no quick-fix - and that Sunderland will have to continue to work hard on the training field in order to deliver the desired results.

“Like everything in football, there is no magic wand,” he admitted.

“There is a lot of unseen work that goes on in football - not just at this club, but at a lot of other clubs too.

“We’re worked hard to try and improve it [scoring goals] and we’ll continue to work hard to try and improve it.

“It may sound very clichéd and not very exciting, but that’s the reality of it.

“The key aspect is those that are willing to keep doing it to change it, rather than trying and if it doesn’t work then giving up on it.

“Whether that’s tweaks in how we play, the work we’ve done on the training pitch has been a continuation of trying to do that.

“And we’ll keep trying to do that until we get it right.”

Fans have voiced their concerns over Sunderland’s lack of goals in recent games, but Ross is keen to assuage their worries ahead of the visit of Blackpool on Tuesday evening.

He has pointed to Sunderland’s improved attacking set pieces - which were another bone of contention among the fanbase earlier in the campaign - as proof of what can be achieved courtesy of hard work behind the scenes.

Now Ross is hopeful that staff and players can deliver a similarly positive transformation when it comes to creating and converting chances.

“At various times this season we’ve had criticism for different things, it tends to float and then fix itself on something,” he added.

“For a weeks it had been set pieces, then we score from a corner on Saturday.

“We’ve worked hard on that for a long time. It wasn’t just last week we did it, we’ve been doing it for a long time.

“The staff have done it for a long time and they get a little bit of a reward on Saturday for it.

“It’ll be the same with making sure we both create more and then take more opportunities when they come.”