After a nightmare month, Sunderland are once again at the bottom of the Premier League table, and Billy Jones has admitted that the only "positive" they can cling on to is the fact they have not been "cut adrift" so far, as the gap between them and safety is somehow only three points as the league's struggling clubs have all failed to grasp any form of consistency.
Sunderland has only gained one point since Christmas, and in a period of the season when games are coming thick and fast it is an incredibly poor time to hit rock bottom, which is what has seemingly happened. The Black Cats churned out another woeful performance at the weekend in their defeat to West Brom, making it a very unhappy return trip for Jones.
Remaining positive
However, even though Sunderland are failing to perform and have now conceded 14 times in their last five outings, Jones is attempting to remain positive, insisting that the squad need to just "keep working hard, stay together and keep that belief," a recipe he thinks will lead to results.
He also believes they need to go back to square one and simply focus on the "basics," taking inspiration from previous relegation scraps where he believes their turnaround has come from "hard work."
On the other hand, Jones isn't blind to how poor Sunderland's performances have been and he admits they are "not helping ourselves" as he feels that even when they are "playing their way into the game" they then go and concede a "sloppy goal" which puts them on the "back foot" immediatley.
He knows only too well that you can't afford to give any Premier League side a "two goal head-start," making games "very tough" for them to pick up any form of results, something that they will need to change soon in order to keep the gap between themselves and safety as small as possible.