Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia expects his side to raise their game against sixth-placed Everton on Sunday.
The Black Cats folded badly in a 3-0 loss at West Brom last weekend and sit only four points above the drop zone, with major shareholder Ellis Short waiting to find out which league the team will be playing in next season before deciding on another cash injection.
With north-east rivals Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the bottom three and preparing for tough examinations against Liverpool and Manchester United respectively, Sbragia knows beating Everton could give Sunderland's survival chances a huge boost.
He said: "You can't gloss over a result or a performance as bad as the one we had at West Brom last weekend and our approach to away games is now something that we are going to have to look at very closely because things just haven't been working out for us on the road.
"But we're at home this weekend and our recent displays have been decent. We beat Hull in our last home game and before that we went down to a narrow and maybe slightly unlucky defeat to Manchester United.
"So we've had a half-decent run at home over the last couple of games and I want us to keep that run of form going in the games against Everton this weekend and against Chelsea in our last home game later this month."
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Paperboy
what you worried about, after all, you've been advocating for weeks now how 'the boro' and the Toon are going down - or is that just wishful thinking!!
Malcolm, it only shows three players for every team. Its the top 3 scorers for each club, not the only people that have scored
That is exactly my thoughts Disgusted. We couldnt bounce even if we were on a trampoline.
When you look at the stats as to who has scored goals this season there are only three players listed Cisse, Jones and Richardson.
This short list tells a massive story, we cannot score goals, and tpresume we are going to do exactly that against Everton is an insult to the fans and to the players of Everton.
I re-iterate my statement from the beginning of the week, Since the days of Jimmy Adamson we have not seen such a poor team display and it MUST , MUST , be a MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT for us to avoid the dreaded drop.
As a life long Safc fan, I see no reason why this team of misfits should magically raise their game and come away with a win. Lets hope the title "Sbragia -We'll bounce back" wasn't meant in the context of bouncing back from the Championship next season....Sbragia -if your going to go down, go down fighting..play three at the back and for gods sake don't just play one up front.
Hope Ricky S isn't trying to equate Everton with Hull, or he might have another unpleasant surprise on Sunday. Team selection, playing tactics and the players heads all have to be absolutely correct - and that would probably be the first time since RK left!
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