Under-pressure Sunderland boss Phil Parkinson has this strong message for fans after more chants against him in drab Gillingham defeat

The Black Cats have slipped down the table since he replaced Jack Ross and now find themselves 11th in League One, five points adrift of the play-off places.

Parkinson made six changes for the long trip to Priestfield but his gamble failed to pay off, with Aiden McGeady and Duncan Watmore also left on the bench.

It wasn’t particularly loud or sustained but a section of the 1,339-strong away support chanted ‘You don’t know what you’re doing!’ late on when Chris Maguire was finally brought on - two minutes into added-on time with Sunderland behind.

Parkinson said he hadn’t heard those chants but remains adamant he can turn it around at Sunderland.

When quizzed if he remains the right man for the job, Parkinson said: “Yeah definitely.

“It is a tough period we are going through, we have to dig ourselves out of it.

“I am confident we will.”

When asked why is it taking so long to turn results around, he added: “We are on a disappointing run at the moment, the heartening thing for me is the lads are giving everything to get the results we need.

“It wasn’t to be today.

“If we keep playing with the same effort and determination we showed then the results will happen sooner rather than later.”

And on the ‘You don’t know what you’re doing!’ chant, Parkinson said: “I didn’t hear that, to be honest, you have better hearing than me.

“There was a couple of minutes left and I made a substitution, I didn’t hear that.”

And quizzed on whether he is feeling the pressure, under-fire Parkinson said: “I would rather be winning, obviously.

“You have to be resilient as a manager, you want everyone on your side obviously but you accept when you are not winning that supporters will be frustrated and I totally understand that.”

Sunderland have another week between League One fixtures with Blackpool, managed by former Black Cats boss Simon Grayson, the visitors to the Stadium of Light next Saturday.