SUNDERLAND’S players have been told to focus on finishing the regular League One campaign on a high this Saturday if they still hold aspirations of making a “good season a great season” by the end of this month.

The Black Cats’ place in the play-offs was confirmed on Tuesday night when a disappointing defeat and second half performance made it impossible for Jack Ross’ team to reclaim an automatic promotion place.

Sunderland, despite only losing twice before this week, have had their blips in form in League One but winning just one of their last six matches building up towards Saturday evening’s trip to Southend United has killed hopes of a top two spot.

Now the focus is purely on winning at Southend and finishing as highly as they can, knowing a play-off semi-final could be contested against Portsmouth, Charlton, Doncaster or even Peterborough United, depending on where they finish.

The opponents Sunderland face over two-legs is not actually the worry for forward Lewis Morgan insists, and he claims that the reason for winning at Roots Hall this weekend is required to improve the mood ahead of such a tussle.

“Whoever you play in the play-offs will be a tough game,” said Morgan. “We want to finish the season as strongly as we can and get third place but we need to beat whoever we get in the play-offs to go up, so we need to focus on ourselves and make sure we do our business. We’re going to try to finish the season as positively as we can.

"In football if you can get that momentum behind you teams are hard to stop. And although we've only got one game between now and the play-offs we really do need to go out and win it.  “I would urge the fans to keep backing us. The players don’t take that for granted, that's one thing. They turned out in their numbers at Fleetwood, they were brilliant, and they have every right to be disappointed.”

With the exception of champions Luton Town, Sunderland have the worst six-match record than the rest of the teams in the top seven so confidence will have clearly taken a battering – so it is down to Ross to lift spirits before the play-offs.  But Morgan, on loan from Celtic, still believes Sunderland can make sure the campaign ends in success rather than frustration.

He said: “There's two ways to look at it. You need a season of consolidation sometimes. We've gone down twice and the manager's steadied the ship but now we really do need to kick on.

“I know people from the outside might say the play-offs is a good season but we want a great season. We want to get out of this division no matter how it comes.  "There's still a great chance to do that so there's no reason to have our chins on the floor. We need to puff our chests out and keep going Everyone just needs to be behind each other.”

He added: “It starts at Southend because we want to be heading into the play-offs on the back of a win. We're potentially four games away from promotion and then these games are forgotten about. What we can't do is forget the feeling of defeat and make sure that drives us on.”

Ross was strong in his criticism of the Sunderland performance against Fleetwood, when they were made to pay – like they have so often this season – for missed chances when they were on top.  And while the former St Mirren boss has been criticised for certain decisions from sections of fans, Morgan feels the manager should not come under fire for failing to get Sunderland up automatically.

“I've worked with him for two years now and I've got nothing but positive words to say about him,” said Morgan. “I would ask that everyone as a club is behind each other – that doesn't just mean the manager, that means players as well because he's a great manager at this club and he's proven in the past he can get up leagues.

“When we step over the white line that's our job. He can only prepare us so much. It's been us as players. I'm of the opinion that it's our fault we've not been putting games to bed and that's something we need to look at as players. We will have a chat through the week as a team.

“We've still got a great chance so we've got to be optimistic and keep pushing on. We wanted to take it to the last day but we've not been able to do that. Now our sole focus is on the play-offs and there's a great chance for us to go up. Everyone needs to be together at the club.”

Ross let his feelings known to his players at the Highbury Stadium on Tuesday night and Morgan does not feel there was much that the team could disagree with.  He said: “Rightly so strong words were said in the dressing room. Fans turned out in great numbers and we didn't do them justice.

“I know we started the game well and got the goal. We spoke at half-time about sloppiness maybe creeping in and we needed to make sure that didn't happen in the second half. The reaction wasn't there, really.

“I don't think it was through a lack of effort but what we need to do now is be more ruthless when we are on top of teams. We've still got a great chance of going up and we're going to need everyone – we need all the fans. They have every right to be sore, everyone at the club is, but we need everyone at the club behind the team."