It has been a disastrous few weeks for Sunderland who have seen their hopes of securing automatic promotion to the Championship all-but fade away.

Barring a miraculous drop-off in performance levels by Peterborough United, the Black Cats will need to navigate their way through the play-offs next month in order to secure a return to the second-tier.

After securing victory in the EFL Trophy Final in March, Sunderland looked as if they were about to steamroll their way to a top-two finish in League One.

However, since beating Oxford United 3-1 at the Stadium of Light earlier this month, the Black Cats have experienced an awful run of form which has resulted in them picking up three points from their last six league games.

Set to face Blackpool tomorrow, Sunderland will be desperate to secure a positive result in order to pick up some momentum heading into the play-offs.

Making reference to the Black Cats' recent blip, journalist Phil Smith has admitted that the club's display during their 3-3 draw with Accrington Stanley was simply not been good enough and that they now find themselves at risk of missing out on promotion for a third season in a row.

In his latest column for the Sunderland Echo, Smith said: "Too often the plan seems to have been lost in the panic.

"This is, it is worth remembering, the same group who turned Sunderland's campaign around from the winter doldrums and so there should be no reason why they are not capable of doing so again.

"But this latest implosion [against Accrington] was a collective failure and simply nowhere near good enough.

"If there was a weariness on Wearside then it is because it feels as if we watched this sequence play out just too many times over three failed tilts at the top two.

"It is up to Johnson and his squad to change the mood, and quickly at that."

GIVEMESPORT's Joshua Cole says...

Sunderland's failure to deal with the pressure of challenging for automatic promotion does not bode well for the play-offs at all.

Whilst the Black Cats haven't lacked goals in League One this season, they have been extremely poor in a defensive sense in recent weeks as they have only managed to keep one clean-sheet in their last nine games.

With Dion Sanderson currently out injured, Sunderland will need the likes of Luke O'Nien and Bailey Wright to step up their performance levels until the 21-year-old is ready to make his return to action.

Whereas the Black Cats' season will not be defined by the outcome of tomorrow's clash with Blackpool, a victory could do wonders for their confidence which has unquestionably taken a major hit as a result of their poor performances in League One.