CHRIS COLEMAN is determined to find the answers to Sunderland’s onfield problems during the international fortnight, after a weekend when Irish midfielder Darron Gibson was suspended following a charge of drink-driving.

Despite the mess the Black Cats find themselves in, on and off the pitch, Coleman insists he would still prefer to be on Wearside than heading to China with Wales.

Coleman was left with a further headache after Gibson was involved in a car accident on Sunderland’s Dovedale Road just before noon on Saturday; a few hours before Sunderland lost 2-0 to Preston in the Championship.

Gibson, out of contract in the summer, was not due to play but was closing in on a first team comeback from a groin injury.

Sunderland have confirmed he has been suspended with immediate effect.

It is the latest Wearside woe.

Coleman has two weeks to address the long-standing defensive issues that reared their head again during the defeat to Preston, and he would have been making the long trek to the Far East for the China Cup with his country had he stayed an international boss.

But he is still happy with the decision to take on the enormous Sunderland challenge – even if they only have eight games to prevent a drop into League One.

There are still five points separating Sunderland from safety but that could have been reduced to two had they capitalised on Barnsley’s slip-up at home to Millwall in the earlier kick-off. Coleman is still up for the challenge.

“I don’t wish I was going to China. It’s a long way and it’s cold there!” said Coleman, who had to brave the UK’S latest big freeze while he was on the touchline on Saturday.

“I knew when I arrived this was going to be a tough one. It’s maybe been tougher than I expected but I don’t regret it. I know where we are and what could be around the corner. I don’t regret it, I maintain everything I said about Sunderland AFC. It was my time to come away from where I was. For me this was the right club.”

Both Sean Maguire and Callum Robinson were afforded far too much space at the back post to head Preston in front and in control, while Jake Clarke-Salter stupidly picked up his second red card since joining from Everton. He is the sixth player to be sent off since Coleman took over in November.

“My enthusiasm is probably less right now but getting to the training ground it was back where it should be, it’s just after games where it’s tough,” said Coleman.

“You must be sick of me saying the same things, after the game it’s a kick in the teeth but you’ve got to get it back. It is what is and there’s time left.”

And Coleman could understand the fans' frustrations, as thousands left early having had enough of Sunderland's latest debacle.

The Sunderland manager added: “As soon as we conceded the first goal everyone got sucked down again and there was a feeling that this is never going to turn around. It felt like we were never going to win another game of football. 

“The one thing when you've been on a run like we have, or the run the club has been on over the last two years, when things like that happen people are going to walk out because they've had their gutful.

"Once we went a goal down we were basically trying to get through the last 35 minutes and get the game over, it was hard. The conditions were terrible for both teams. It was a gritty game and we were in it but as soon as they scored from that free-kick, you could feel the atmosphere from everybody, thinking here we go again.

"If it had been a ten-pass move and they'd cut through us with brilliant individual skill, that would be one thing but it wasn't that, it was one free-kick into the box and it wasn't difficult to defend but we didn't defend it. 

“That's what cost us the game. Once we went a goal down, we weren't getting back into it. It was just more disappointment and it's a common theme here. We don't come back when we go a goal down.

"You look at the final half hour and you think if you had a magic wand just to change everything, you'd do that. But we haven't got that.  "With eight games left we're rock bottom, we haven't won in ten and we've lost again at home, it was the same goals we gave away, the same type of goals and that's where we are.”

Coleman has maintained his positive outlook and approach throughout his time in charge at the Stadium off Light and he is determined to remain that way for as long as he is at the helm.  He has already indicated that he wants to stay on regardless of the division, but he is not giving up hope that Sunderland can still stay up.

Coleman said: "Birmingham won but the rest of them lost. The most important thing is that we lost again. I don't want to give my lot any excuses by saying it's still only five points, we've got to do something different. 

“We've got to start asking the opposition more questions. What have we got to lose now? If we don't try something different it doesn't look like we're going to get away from where we are.

"Most dressing rooms I've been involved with now are very different to the ones of yesteryear. You don't really get a lot of that (arguing). You get one or two who are vocal but predominantly in every club, they say less in dressing rooms. 

“You always get one or two characters that are prepared to say something but mostly players are fairly quiet. It's not an indictment on modern players, it's just the way they are.”

Clarke-Salter has helped to shore up the Sunderland defence when he has played but his last two outings have seen him pick up red cards. 

That means he will now serve a two-match ban, having picked up two cautions for pulling players back against Preston, which was his first game back after a three-match suspension.

Coleman said: "It was inexperience. He's been rock solid. Today, he wasn't, he was a little bit shaky and I don't know if that was again because he's young or if it was the pressure, but he looked a bit short.

“Certainly, at the start of the second half, he took a bang in the first half and that slowed him down a little. We just couldn't get him off the pitch quickly enough. 

"He made that mistake and it's another red card for him. We'll be missing him again for the foreseeable future.

"If you're not winning, you look at it and you say we need to change this or that. When you're in the bottom three, sometimes no matter what you do or how you change it you get the same results and the same performances. We're conceding the same goals with different faces. That's quite worrying. 

“The next two weeks are a little bit of a breather from it, it gives us a breather from where we are and that will give us a little spring maybe. 

"It also gives me a chance to step back from it and ask if I can come up with something to change it enough and go down a different path to get different results.”

Sunderland are back in action on Good Friday at Derby County when Marc Wilson and Ty Browning will be competing to fill the void left by the suspended Clarke-Salter.