CHRIS COLEMAN has admitted that Ashley Fletcher has found it much harder to repair his fractured confidence than had been hoped, with Sunderland left banking on the Middlesbrough man benefitting from a two-week break.

Fletcher was left out by Coleman for Saturday’s defeat to Preston when Joel Asoro and Josh Maja were given the opportunity to start together up front.

The explanation the Sunderland boss gave for leaving the Boro striker out was because he was keen to pair the teenage friends together in attack.

But the facts speak for themselves too, with Fletcher unable to score in any of his seven starts since moving to the Stadium of Light at the end of January.

He didn’t come close to altering that unwanted statistic when he was introduced as a substitute with 26 minutes remaining against Preston.

Fletcher’s woes in front of goal are a continuation of his frustrations down the A19 at the Riverside. He struggled to find the net after his £6.5m move from West Ham, in fact he his only goal in the Championship was against Queens Park Rangers in September.

His woes in front of goal have carried over into his time at Sunderland, where he has had a couple of fantastic opportunities to score and wasted them. Coleman is still desperate for him to find his feet, having made him his one out-and-out striker signing in the window.

Coleman said: "He's found it tough coming into a struggling team. He's coming into a club with a lot of uncertainty, he's had one or two moments in games where if he hits the back of the net things could be different.

"There was a moment at Bristol where the keeper pulled off a great save, I think that affected him, against Aston Villa he got through and had a bad touch and that affected him.

"He'll come through it, but with Josh and Joel they're also young but they like playing together, especially when we play two up top.

"They've got a good connection, they're big friends, so I thought it would be better to take Fletch out and give those two a start.”

Coleman has given his squad a number of days off this week in the hope it can spark something, having spent the last few months in each other’s pockets trying and failing to engineer a survival charge.

Fletcher is looking for something different himself. The 22-year-old could argue he was not given much of a chance at Middlesbrough, where he only made three league starts, and that has clearly affected his confidence.

Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis has not written him off as a bad buy, during Garry Monk’s time in charge, and is keen for the youngster to rediscover the sort of form that earned him England Under-21s recognition.

Coleman only has Kazenga LuaLua as an alternative to lead the line beyond Fletcher, Asoro and Maja, so it is hard to imagine in the current situation than there will be a sudden rush of goals from this squad.

It has been a really frustrating spell for Coleman. He stressed last week that he has no regrets about taking over a club in such a mess on and off the pitch, having decided to walk away from Wales last October.

The former Fulham and Coventry manager could have stayed on with his country and tried to steer the Welsh to a second successive European Championship appearance, having missed out on the World Cup spot.

Wales are gearing up for a couple of games in the China Cup this week and it will be the first under Ryan Giggs. It was claimed that Wales’ senior players lobbied to keep Coleman in charge before his decision to leave.

One of those, Chris Gunter, has denied such suggestions. The Reading defender said: "It was made out that there was a group of players who were knocking his hotel door and begging him to stay.

"It wasn't quite like that because players don't really have an influence on what happens above. Certainly this group of players wouldn't think just because we've done well in the past we deserve the right to make decisions like that.

"I know that's been said in the past about this group of players, but it's not the case. Everybody wanted the manager to stay and, as footballers, you buy into what's happening at the time.

"We wanted the manager to stay, because he was a massive part of Welsh history and everybody loved playing under him. But in this case I think we were the last to know what was going on."