Pierre Ekwah delivers Sunderland dressing room view after Norwich loss and sends message ahead of Leicester

Pierre Ekwah says Sunderland players have to stay positive after a run of four consecutive defeats which has seen them slip nine points away from the Championship play-off places.

The Black Cats were beaten 1-0 by Norwich at Carrow Road, with Canaries striker Josh Sargent scoring the winning goal nine minutes from time. “We’d been playing good all afternoon so a late goal is a difficult one to take,” said Ekwah after the match. “A 1-0 is always difficult. We had really good spells in the game, that’s for sure, and in the end we didn’t come out on top. It’s a difficult one to take.”

Sunderland have 11 league games remaining this season, starting with Tuesday’s home match against league leaders Leicester at the Stadium of Light, before a trip to automatic promotion chasers Southampton next weekend.

When asked about Tuesday’s fixture against Leicester, Ekwah added: “They are going to come out there to win and it’s the same for us. It’s definitely going to be a good game and we definitely will be looking forward to the next week. On Tuesday we are going to try and put things right where they need to be.

“Sometimes it happens in football, you can have a bad spell for whatever reason. You can’t just put your head down. The fans don’t put their heads down and always have faith in us so we can’t just put our heads down.“