Striker Kenwyne Jones insists Sunderland are not yet involved in a relegation fight. He said: "The thing is, from eighth place to last place in the league, it is so tight, so I don't think any teams in those positions will be thinking it is going to be a relegation battle.

"It's just like the Championship, or League One or League Two, where I have been for years, you have a couple of wins and you are right up the table; you have a couple of losses, and you are back down.

"That's what's happening this year. All we need to do is just maintain that progression.

"One win gets you so far. We are not really going to worry about relegation until it has separated, and at the moment, it has not.

"There are a lot of big teams down there and you don't know what is going to happen.

"Every game from now until the table irons itself out and there is some space in between the relegation zone and mid-table, we need to be on that type of form and winning games until that time comes.

"Whenever that is, we don't know, but hopefully it will be in the next three, four, five games.

"We just need to keep progressing."