Mike Dodds vows to bring 'bold' football back to Sunderland

Mike Dodds has vowed to bring attacking football back to Sunderland as he prepares for the start of his latest stint as interim head coach.

Dodds will be in charge for the last 13 games of the season following the sacking of Michael Beale earlier this week.

While results weren’t great under Beale, the biggest criticism of the former Rangers boss was that the quality of the football took a total nosedive during his time in the Sunderland dugout.

He takes charge with Sunderland seven points adrift of the play-off positions, but he says he’s in no mood to give up on promotion just yet.

“There’s still a huge amount of football to be played,” Dodds said. “The league has shown that anyone can lose back-to-back games so even the teams in front of us – they’re still within touching distance. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.

“It’s not lost on me the magnitude of the football club or in terms of the expectations. We’ve got to live up to that, whether we’re good enough or not good enough – that’s the aspiration.

“My mindset is that I’m going to go and try and win all 13 games and what might happen with that; I might lose a game because I’ve been overly bold and I’ll get criticised for that and then some games we might do really well and I’ll get praised for that.

“But when you sit in this seat, I accept that’s what comes with the territory. Every time we prepare for a game it’s never to go and shut up shop or get a point. Every focus is on winning the game.”

One thing that you appear to be guaranteed with when Mike Dodds is in charge is some calm from the touchline.

Dodds struggled in his first interim spell as head coach during the League One promotion campaign but he cuts a very different figure these days.

“My role at the football club for the last sort of 18 months since Alex [Neil] came in hasn't really changed.

“I appreciate from the outside coming in it looks like loads of change. Internally, the processes in which we work and operate have stayed the same. Same as the last time, I'm relaxed.

“Obviously I didn't expect to be sat here as early as I am. I'm super relaxed. Working with the group, we've got a good group, some good players, so I'm looking forward to it.”

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