Why Phil Parkinson is still confident his Sunderland side will win promotion

pPhil Parkinson is adamant Sunderland can still win promotion to the Championship this season, despite their poor start to the campaign./p pa data-content-type=section-topic data-link-tracking=InArticle|Link href=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/sunderland-afc target=_blankSunderland/a sit ninth in a rather disjointed League One table, with two games in hand over many of the sides currently sitting above them./p pParkinson has a 50% record in his league form at the club thus far, with two wins and two defeats leaving the Wearsiders eight points off a top two spot currently./p pBut a data-content-type=section-topic data-link-tracking=InArticle|Link href=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/phil-parkinson target=_blankParkinson/a is not panicking, as he remains confident of the task at hand to take the club back to the second tier - even after the recent performances in cup competitions./p pquot;Weapos;re without a doubt capable [of promotion],quot; Parkinson said. quot;Recently weapos;ve been threadbare in the last couple of games. Itapos;s hard to judge the team at Gillingham away. It was a poor performance and we didnapos;t threaten the goal. But it was a threadbare team./p pquot;It wasnapos;t a reflection on the team or the way we want to play going forward./p pquot;Going back, past those couple of recent cup games, even Oxford away, I thought we played well. Shrewsbury we dominated the game and it was incredible we didnapos;t score. The two home games weapos;ve taken six points from. So there is quality in the building./p video id=6107468036001 title=Sunderland must rectify their mistakes as they return to league action poster=https://cf-images.eu-west-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/4221396001/189e00d9-49ed-4fc3-b779-14fdcac3ee5d/927de2e3-8a7e-4920-97fe-b2b12e5aa362/1280x720/match/image.jpgsource type=video/mp4 src=https://house-cloudfront.eu-west-1.prod.boltdns.net/media/v1/pmp4/static/clear/4221396001/189e00d9-49ed-4fc3-b779-14fdcac3ee5d/962dab99-5547-4d30-8b93-1d573b3ef11d/main.mp4?Key-Pair-Id=APKAINLZLPQXMZG2IC5Aamp;Policy=eyJTdGF0ZW1lbnQiOlt7IlJlc291cmNlIjoiKi8vaG91c2UtY2xvdWRmcm9udC5ldS13ZXN0LTEucHJvZC5ib2x0ZG5zLm5ldC9tZWRpYS92MS9wbXA0L3N0YXRpYy9jbGVhci80MjIxMzk2MDAxLzE4OWUwMGQ5LTQ5ZWQtNGZjMy1iNzc5LTE0ZmRjYWMzZWU1ZC85NjJkYWI5OS01NTQ3LTRkMzAtOGI5My0xZDU3M2IzZWYxMWQvbWFpbi5tcDQqIiwiQ29uZGl0aW9uIjp7IkRhdGVMZXNzVGhhbiI6eyJBV1M6RXBvY2hUaW1lIjoxNTc0NTI1NjQwfX19XX0_amp;Signature=e1SA0VEpXZOWFbmeX48vT4r6h2LtWVmN0Kvswkx82xwh9TJUtO7vJzogr6D0xNeIWNl9bi~-bUSHXVUlRNzjtUtzQKXgFsq2z7B69F4U2Ge8d38tpaP9Qv8Pm0KHQ0mW89n2TEAOdFPktkCZ9i-Bec9-2Aw-v-QnuO1Dhlhb~TSh6FhCelEbzCaeUHNhEhvfWtNHC-~irNgzlmCVpYTH3j4xZtzidikxhzKHOs9dyOiK-GrcWGBlhJIu3DzzTIPnuruyK9QgIBUjh0ZXlhJ-MZHoHws7RNuKwoMXV6oT4maE8T6f6JIHn1HFFJJEpS-2xUmoKBH6G3tHerzS7hqDNg__/video pquot;Weapos;re all kind of frustrated [about Tuesdayapos;s defeat at Gillingham] because any game you play and you want to do better and you want to represent this great football club./p pquot;But weapos;ve just got to focus on the process of whatapos;s required tomorrow. And thatapos;s clear from the message for me, this is what weapos;ve got to do to perform our very best tomorrow. This is how we think they play, this is what weapos;re going to do to maximise our chances of winning, and weapos;ll concentrate on that and weapos;ll see if itapos;s good enough on the day./p pquot;Weapos;ve got to get more out of every single player and Iapos;m looking forward to having more options to choose from and weapos;ll get us off work ourselves off and running again./p pquot;Our focus is on the league. We have 31 cup finals now and every bit of energy will be going into the league. It seems a long time since we had a league match. It#x2019;s been disjointed.quot;/p pParkinsonapos;s options are boosted from the midweek FA Cup exit, with Jordan Willis, Joel Lynch and George Dobson back available, and Tom Flanagan and Jon McLaughlin back from international duty too./p pBut his forward options are still slight, with Conor McLaughlinapos;s suspension meaning Luke Oapos;Nien is likely needed again at right-back, while Charlie Wyke, Lynden Gooch and Marc McNulty are all still injured./p pAnd Parkinson admits his current squad need to ensure they stay in touching distance between now and January, when he will be backed to strengthen his squad./p pHe said: quot;Weapos;ve got to be in touching distance by the time we get the January./p pquot;But I clearly know what we need to do. Iapos;ve been promoted before several times and I know what qualities we need, what we need to get out the existing players weapos;ve got, if we get the opportunity to add to it, what qualities we need to add to it./p pquot;Iapos;ve got a clear picture in my mind what we need to do. Of course, these games up to January a massive in terms of getting the players back on the pitch have not been available, and also getting more out of the ones whoapos;ve been playing.quot;/p