Lynden Gooch reflects on Sunderland's woeful form and why top two remains the aim

A wretched run of form under new manager has seen the Black Cats drop to 13th in the League One table, winless since November 2nd.

They currently sit six points off the play-off positions, and nine off Peterborough United, who moved into the top two on Saturday as Ipswich Town’s downturn in form continues.

Gooch is fit again after a long lay-off with an ankle problem and insists his side can go on a run.

"Of course [we're still aiming for automatic promotion],” he said.

“If you can put together two or three wins on the bounce all the sudden you're in the top two. That's just how this league is, you're never far away. Obviously we've had a really bad run and we're still not that far away, so it just shows you.

"We've still got a good dressing room, good togetherness. We're sticking together that's what you have to do, especially tough times. I've been in plenty of dressing rooms here where we've had plenty of tough times and, for me, I try to just use that experience to try and keep the lads level-headed.

“You've just got to keep plugging away and things will happen. One thing can just turn it for you and you can go on a bit of a run. We know we have the quality and the manager hasn't had that much time on the training pitch to really implement what he wants us to do, with so many games, so this is the chance for us this week to work on all of that.

"It is a good group of lads,” he added.

“I think when Jack Ross was here he changed a lot and got a lot of good lads in, a lot of who are still here.

“We've been through a lot, especially last season as well, being one game away from reaching our goal, so we can't get too caught up, we're still only a couple of wins away from getting into the play-off positions.”