Dan Neil's Sunderland hopes for team's final three fixtures against West Brom, Watford and Preston

Despite winning their previous two games against Cardiff and Birmingham, the Black Cats’ top-six aspirations took a hit as they were held to a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town at the Stadium of Light.

Still, Tony Mowbray’s side are not completely out of the play-off picture as they prepare to face promotion rivals West Brom, Watford and Preston in their three remaining fixtures.

“I think probably a few weeks ago when we had that little bit of a tough spell everyone thought that the play-offs were out of our hands and we have managed to claw ourselves back into contention,” said Neil after the Huddersfield game.

“It was a disappointing result but it’s another point on the board, we still have to play everyone around us that is trying to get in the play-offs.

“If we can take points from them, they are not gaining any. It’s not over until the final whistle at the end of the season.”

Sunderland have also recorded some impressive results on the road in recent weeks, taking seven points from their last three away fixtures against Norwich, Burnley and Cardiff.

“For some reason our away form has been really good this year,” Neil added when asked about Sunday’s trip to West Brom.

“I’m not sure what I can put that down to, maybe teams are opening up more when they’re at home and we’re away.

“I definitely feel when we’re at home teams sit in a lot more and try to hit us on the break, and maybe that’s one of the reasons our home form hasn't been as good this year and we haven’t quite found a fix for that.

“We have two away games left and one big game at home against Watford. I’ll always fancy us against any team in the division starting with West Brom on Sunday.”

Sunderland’s squad remains stretched ahead of their trip to The Hawthorns, though, after Dan Ballard, Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton, Jewison Bennette and Edouard Michut all missed the Huddersfield match due to injuries.

Defender Danny Batth was also forced off in the closing stages of Tuesday’s match and will be assessed ahead of the West Brom fixture.

“We’ve said this quite a lot this year but injuries have been a big factor in our season,” said Neil.

“I think if you take that into consideration and put it into context I think it’s been a brilliant season for the team and the club.

“It would be nice to really push on and give the fans something to get excited about on the last day of the season.

“At the end of the day the bodies who we’ve got is who we’ve got and we need to make do with who we’ve got, go wherever we’re going and give it our all in these last three games.”