MIKE Dodds insists his confidence hasn't taken a hit despite a run of four straight defeats since he was named Sunderland's interim head coach after Michael Beale's exit.

And although Dodds admits his players are understandably downbeat after a dismal stretch of results that has seen them slide out of Championship play-off contention, the temporary boss says his players can take heart from chunks of all of their recent displays and insists the Black Cats have deserved more.

Dodds enjoyed a successful stint as caretaker boss after Tony Mowbray was sacked in December, leading Sunderland to impressive victories over Leeds United and West Brom before a narrow defeat to Bristol City.

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But this spell in charge has been a different story. After losses to Huddersfield and Birmingham led to Beale's exit, Dodds has overseen four more defeats to Swansea, Norwich, Leicester and Southampton.

But he insists he hasn't lost belief in himself or the group of players.

"Mine hasn't, I'm really enjoying the role," he said, when asked whether his confidence has been hit by the run of defeats.

"If anything, it's reinforced that when things aren't going well I can still see the path we're trying to go on and I can still see and feel belief in the players.

"In terms of the players, they've lost six on the bounce, they're not skipping down the corridors and they're not high fiving each other but they can see what we're trying to do. And you can look at the six results and they've been poor results but we also need to look at it from a performance perspective.

"The Huddersfield game wasn't a great performance. The Birmingham game the first half was a good performance and the second half a poor performance.

"Swansea I took responsibility for the first 45, I thought the second 45 was excellent. Norwich I felt we completely nullified them and there was nothing in the game.

"Leicester for large spells we were better them and I felt we deserved a lot more than what we got. And I thought we were better than Southampton for large spells but on that occasion the bit I can't defend is we've conceded four poor goals."

Sunderland host QPR this Saturday in desperate need of a boost before the international break.

Rangers are battling at the wrong end of the table but have improved of late and were four unbeaten prior to their weekend defeat to Middlesbrough.

Boss Marti Cifuentes said: “I’m convinced that we’re going to manage to reach the target, but if anyone thought it was easy they were making a big mistake.

“I’m not a magician. I’m here to help. But to expect we’re going to win every game is delusional. It’s going to be tough.”