FED UP Kelvin Davis was at a loss to explain Sunderland's insipid display at Bolton Wanderers at the weekend.

The Black Cats have endured an abject spell of bad fortune since they returned to the top flight but their performances, more often than not, have been admirable.

At the Reebok Stadium on Saturday, however, the spark and endeavour characterised in previous showings was sadly missing from their play.

And Davis and Grant Leadbitter's confident performances aside, there was little to get excited about as the Black Cats tumbled to a sixth defeat in seven fixtures.

"Since the change of manager there's been a bit of a spark there but it hasn't transformed us on the pitch and it hasn't shown in the results," said the Sunderland shot stopper.

"In the second half for whatever reason we didn't kick on like we'd planned to. I don't know why, it just seemed to be that way. We did well defensively in the first half but attacking-wise I don't think we created enough.

"I can't remember Jussi (Jaaskaleinan) making too many saves. He made one from Tommy Miller but he didn't have a lot to do and that's normally a tell-tale sign of how you've done in a game.

"Again, I don't think we've been outplayed, we haven't looked weak, or as if we can't cope with this league but we need to start scoring goals.

"We came in very positive at half-time. We felt we rode a bit of a storm and got away with one or two situations.

"When you get to half-time and it's 0-0 you always expect to go out and win the game. For whatever reason it didn't happen."

The £1.25m goalkeeper was clearly Sunderland's best performer against Sam Allardyce's Champions League chasing side. Davis pulled off a string of fine saves to keep his team in the contest, only for a momentary lapse of concentration by his defenders to undo all his good work.

"The goals obviously weren't defended well enough," admitted Davis. "When you're playing against quality players who can get themselves in the right position and use their bodies as well, as the Bolton lads did, you're going to get punished.

"You don't need to work too hard on set pieces. You know that you pick your man up and your man doesn't score."

The finger of blame has been pointed at the Black Cats' defence on several occasions this season. But although they have conceded more times than any other side in the Premier League - 54 - an inability to find the opposition's net - 19 times in 30 outings - has largely contributed to their downfall.

But rather than blame the club's misfiring forwards, he insisted the responsibility needs to be spread around.

He said: "It's a team game and there's nothing to stop us going up for a corner and a centre-half or a midfielder scoring a goal."