LEE Cattermole believes Sunderland have a dressing room strong enough to recover from the dents being inflicted on their confidence.

This time last week the scratchy Black Cats could take solace from the fact they had lost just once all season. That figure has trebled since, bringing into focus a sequence of one win over Premier League opposition since March and eight hours without a goal. “There’s no hiding from that,” captain Cattermole admitted. “I’m not a massive believer in stats, (but) we haven’t created enough chances and it is something we are working on.

“We believe in the team we have got. There is real quality in that dressing room to turn this around. Before Saturday we had only got beaten by Man City (in the league) and there is a lot of pressure on the team for not scoring goals.

“We have to keep working hard. The quality will come through in the end. We will stick together and it is as good a dressing room as I have ever been in. We have to win more than we lose this year, but the dressing room is very strong.

“People can have disagreements, and it’s good we can have a row with each other because we are all in it together. We understand that.

“It is very upbeat in the dressing room.

“We are disappointed not to have won a game. They are an unbelievable bunch of lads. It is very early in the season.

“We have top, top footballers here. You are going to see some quality here this season.”

The conundrum facing Sunderland is how to get the best from the creative players at their disposal. Steven Fletcher is the only Black Cats player to have scored in this season’s Premier League, and he has not found the net since September. Missing chances is not the problem, creating them is. “We can do different drills in training, we have been doing that, getting the ball out wide,” said Cattermole, Saturday’s outstanding performer.

“At the minute we are not doing the right stuff. People keep saying Johnno (Adam Johnson) because he is that good a player. He can’t do it all of the time. We all have to help each other out.

“As a team we are absolutely devastated (to lose to Villa).”