Jack Ross has told his players they will have to raise their game in the play-offs or face up to a second season in League One - something they should want to avoid at all costs.
Ross was angry after seeing his side throw away a lead to lose in injury-time at Fleetwood Town, with that result killing off their chance of taking the battle for automatic promotion to the final day of the season.
Luton Town and Barnsley will go up automatically and Sunderland will have to take their chances in the play-offs alongside Portsmouth, Charlton Athletic, and either Doncaster Rovers or Peterborough United.
Ross said: “It’s not a time to sugarcoat anything and to make sure they understand that they don’t want to spend another season in this league.
“That’s not being disrespectful to this league because we know how tough it has been, but every player who ever comes to Sunderland should have ambitions to play in at least one league higher and I’m the same as a manager.
“The reality we need to face up to is that we need to do certain things better, otherwise they will [spend another season in League One] and I don’t want to, and they shouldn’t want to.
“It might be that now you find out about the ones who are really prepared to stand up because it is going to take big character now over these play-off games.
“I think we’ve been positive with them all season.
“It’s not a case of hanging them out to dry - this is what I have just said to them in the dressing room - but we have tried to cajole them through the season and tried to navigate our way through for various reasons.
“Now is the time to reinforce that because the circumstances around losing the game tonight means we can’t go up automatically so the brutal reality of it has to be clear.
“I didn’t come here to be happy to steady the ship, I came here to take the club back to the Championship and that’s what I want to do.
“I’m prepared to stand up and be counted, but I need every single one of them in there to do the same.
“I’m confident they will because they have shown character all season.”
Lee Cattermole gave Sunderland the lead in the first half but Paddy Madden levelled 15 minutes from time, before Ashley Eastham completed the turnaround when he headed home from a corner five minutes into added time.
The defeat means Sunderland have only won one of their last six games, and it is that late-season stumble that has cost the Black Cats dear.
Ross said: “Over the last three games, collectively, against Peterborough, Portsmouth, and tonight, we’ve had a lot of good opportunities and if we had taken them then the scorelines would have been different - but we didn’t, and you then have to keep a clean sheet and we have not done that.
“It’s not a good recipe and you can’t shy away from that, the results over these last five or six games haven’t been enough for us to get into that top two and that’s what has cost us.”
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Fleetwood Town 2-1 Sunderland report: Defeat consigns Sunderland to the play-offs
