NINE points off the play-offs, nine points off the relegation zone. It is far to say that with 11 games to play, Sunderland’s season has reached a tipping point ahead of tomorrow night’s home game with league leaders Leicester City.

The problem heading into the game, though, is that the club’s trajectory in the last month has been downwards. The final two matches of the Michael Beale era ended in defeat, leading to the departure of easily the most unpopular Black Cats boss of recent times, but things have not improved under his interim successor, with the first two games of Mike Dodds’ reign also ending with two losses.

Throw in the ongoing anger at off-field events at the Stadium of Light, whether relating to the controversial decision to dismiss Tony Mowbray, the farcical build-up to the derby defeat to Newcastle or the increasingly widespread frustrations at Kristjaan Speakmans’s ‘project’ and the club’s signing policy, and you have all the makings of a toxic atmosphere that has the potential to get even worse.

There are a host of mitigating factors, particularly when it comes to Dodds’ role in the unfolding mess, but tomorrow’s game has the feel of an occasion that could do much to determine the prevailing mood on Wearside for the rest of the season.

“You’ve had some pinch points over the last few months, where one thing leads after another and after another,” admitted Dodds, whose fire-fighting role has looked more and more difficult with every week he has spent in his current post. “The only thing we can do, internally, as players and within the dressing room, is win games of football.

“If we win games of football, those other things that are outside my control become a lot less pressing. They’re not going to go away, we’re fully aware of that, but we’ve got to do our bit to help the football club – myself and the players.

“We’re in a little bit of a moment in terms of results, and we’re fully aware of that. We’ve got to do our bit as players and staff to turn that, and the way we do that is by winning games of football.”

Can Sunderland get back to winning ways against the league leaders? Leicester have looked surprisingly shaky in the last three weeks, losing three games in a row against Middlesbrough, Leeds and QPR, but they retain a three-point advantage at the top of the table and boast a squad that continues to be the envy of just about every other team in the league.

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Sunderland, on the other hand, are devoid of confidence and shorn of their leading goalscorer and talisman. Nevertheless, Dodds insists that, internally, much of the noise that has built up in the last few months is relatively easy to ignore. Within the sanctity of the dressing room, the 37-year-old is adamant that a sense of optimism and belief remains.

“Listen, I’m not suggesting that the players are skipping down the corridors,” he said “I’m not suggesting that. But what I will say is that there’s a real focus and intensity from them that, I’ll be honest, has surprised me because I thought I would probably have to pick one or two off the floor a little bit.

“They genuinely seem really focused and clear in terms of what we’re trying to do. The situation at the moment is the situation. We lost arguably one of the best defenders in the league, we lost someone who is a huge part of our goal contribution, and that’s not going to be a fix after one game.

“We’re not going to fix that after one game, it’s something we’re going to have to keep working and working at. But I also completely understand the fans’ perspective on things.”

Sunderland (probable, 4-2-3-1): Patterson; Hume, O’Nien, Ballard, Hjelde; Neil, Ekwah; Ba, Bellingham, Styles; Hemir.