Jack Ross defends Sunderland's lack of clean sheets and discusses challenges of League One

The Black Cats sit third in the table ahead of tonight's game at Doncaster, despite the assumption the Wearsiders haven't quite hit top gear yet.

Sunderland were heavy favourites to win promotion at the start of the season, but Ross has warned supporters not to take anything for granted.

"I think there’s still a little bit of an adjustment for some people that feel we will automatically win games comfortably every week," said Ross.

"There’s nothing wrong with believing you're going to win every week but it’s tough to do so in this league.

"There is that argument to say that we haven't been absolutely fantastic in any game, but there are games which have been good and parts of games that have been good."

Ross also defended his side's lack of clean sheets, after the Black Cats recorded just their second shutout in the league at Shrewsbury on Saturday,

Overall, the Sunderland boss has been pleased with how his team have performed this campaign, and is encouraged at the prospect there could be more to come.

When asked if his side could still improve, Ross said: "If you break down aspects of our record this season, the number of games we’ve lost (one in the league), wins we’ve had (seven), the number of goals we’ve scored (26), we’ve scored in every game. Even Defensively, I get asked about clean sheets but I think we’ve got the fourth best defence in the league.

"There’s a lot of things when you break them down individually that I think we’ve been good at.

"If there is a case we’ll get better, that’s reassuring for me as a manager knowing that we’re sitting where we are in the table and improvement is still there for us."