JUST days after scooping the supporters’ player of the year award, Danny Collins has attempted to lift the pressure on Ricky Sbragia’s shoulders by blaming the playing squad for Sunderland’s precarious position.

A failure to emerge from Bolton with three points this afternoon would open the door for both Newcastle and Middlesbrough to close the four-point gap to their North- East rivals when they meet on Monday night.

But rather than look negatively at the situation, Collins believes now is the time for the members inside the Sunderland dressing room to pull together.

The disruption of a change of manager when Roy Keane left in early December brought new ideas and a fresh approach from Sbragia, who won two of his four matches in charge as caretaker boss.

But since signing an 18- month contract to succeed Keane on a full-time basis, Sunderland have dropped back down the Premier League table after winning just three of his 16 games in charge.

There has been growing criticism of Sbragia during that run, which Collins feels is unfair, and the versatile defender has called for every player to pull together in the final three matches to prove they are all playing for the manager.

“We managed to bring in a few players last summer and we expected to push on for a top half finish,” said Collins.

“We have to be thinking why where we not pushing West Ham and Manchester City for the top seven?

“Maybe there has been a change of manager. But a lot of the blame has to be at the players’ feet. We go out there and there have been a lot of games where we should look at ourselves and think ‘we didn’t perform there’. We have to get back to the performances like Hull and just before Ricky got the job, there was a good togetherness then.

“People start to look for excuses when you are not playing well and are not getting the results, blaming the manager, but more blame has to be aimed at the players.”

Despite his belief that the players could have done more since the turn of the year, Collins was not confident enough to pinpoint the exact reasons for Sunderland’s failings.

But rather than reflecting on a run of just five points from the last 30 available, Collins just wants to see improvement, starting at Bolton – when a victory would go a long way to securing Sunderland’s top-flight status.

“If I could put my finger on the reasons why we have struggled we would be sitting seventh,” said the 28-year-old.

“If you come to watch training every day it’s top class, but on a Saturday it has been a different story.

“We have to try to turn that into matches, doing things right. We don’t want to be riding on picking up three points against Chelsea on the last day to stay up.”

Collins was crowned the supporters’ player of the year for the second season in a row on Tuesday night, highlighting the huge regard there is for him on Wearside.

This is the third campaign he has spent in the Premier League and having become a permanent fixture in the teams of Mick McCarthy, Keane and now Sbragia, after a £150,000 move from Chester City in October 2004, he is in no mood to give up top-flight football cheaply.

“As a player you want to be at the top,” said Collins. “Having tasted it for a few seasons that is where you want to be.

I was part of the team that got relegated on 15 points a few years back.

“It wasn’t a good experience.

It’s not what you want on the CV. I don’t want to go through relegation again and it’s something that we are trying not to think about. Middlesbrough and Newcastle have to face each other, but we have to look at ourselves.”

Sbragia hinted last week that he was ready to look at the Football League in the future for talent to recruit in the close-season, despite the clamour for big spending in the Premier League.

But having spent three years in the lower leagues with Chester, who were last weekend relegated to the Blue Square Premier, Collins feels there are plenty players outside of the top division worthy of a chance.

“There are good players down there. Kevin Phillips was another example and Michael Kightly was signed by Wolves from Grays for £25,000. Such players just need to be given a chance,” he said.

“It was a real shock when I arrived. But I was always confident when I made the step up. If you doubt yourself for too long you have no chance.

“You have to back yourself.

I’d be lying if I never thought at the time ‘do I deserve to be here’ because you do. But you soon get over that.”