Dan Ballard’s honest assessment on Sunderland’s confidence levels after Preston and Ipswich defeats

Dan Ballard admits Sunderland’s confidence levels have taken a hit following back-to-back Championship defeats but remains confident the team will improve.

The Black Cats were beaten 2-1 at Preston in their second league game of the campaign, less than a week after losing against Ipswich by the same scoreline.

Sunderland fell behind at Deepdale when the ball deflected in off North End striker Will Keane, but reacted well and drew level through Jack Clarke’s penalty.

The visitors struggled to build on that momentum after the break, though, with Mads Frokjaer scoring the winner just before the hour mark.

“It’s another frustrating game,” admitted Ballard. “The first goal was identical to last week and was extremely frustrating for us.

“Again I thought we played well as a team but just didn’t have that final cutting edge.

“It’s a poor second goal, again similar to last week. It was like playing in the same game.

“We’re disappointed but teams aren’t going to score goals like that against us every week. It’s frustrating but we just have to move on from it.”

Sunderland’s sixth-place finish last season has increased expectations on Wearside, with hopes of another play-off push.

Yet despite a challenging start, Ballard knows there is a long season ahead.

“Obviously the confidence takes a hit when you lose games but throughout the course of the season there are going to be times when you lose a few in a row,” the defender said.

“It’s probably a little bit harder at the start of the season but there are always going to be periods in a season when things go against you.

“We just have to keep working hard and for sure we’ll start picking up results if we keep working as we are.”

Like against Ipswich last weekend, Sunderland saw more of the ball at Preston but couldn’t make their possession count.

The Black Cats are looking to bolster their attacking options before the end of the transfer window, after Bradley Dack started up front in place of Hemir at Deepdale.

Yet Ballard doesn’t feel there is additional pressure when the team falls behind in games, even when playing without a recognised number nine at times.

“It’s not something we really think about, you see again we did create a lot of chances,” he added. “I’m sure on another day they go in the back of the net.

“It’s not like we can’t get near the goal and there are no chances, we probably got behind their backline five or six times.

“I’m sure on another day we score two or three.”

Sunderland are also likely to see more of the ball when they host Rotherham at the Stadium of Light this weekend.

When asked about that fixture, Ballard replied: “We want to of course please the fans, they pack it out every week.

“The way teams set up might be different which is why we probably didn’t pick up as many points at home last year.

“We are improving on that, we need to break teams down and everyone is getting more experience playing against teams like we did today who are maybe slightly more defensive and try to make it harder to break them down.

“I thought we did that quite well and it just didn’t go our way.”