The Mackems have MAJOR problems in front of goal, and Stephane Sessegnon admits Sunderland cannot expect to keep their points tally ticking over if he and his fellow attackers continue to labour.
Sunderland have accumulated a reasonable total of eight points from their opening seven Premier League games and suffered just one defeat in the process – at last season’s champions Manchester City.
Yet the Black Cats are the lowest scorers in the division, with just six goals to their name - ONE OF THOSE SCORED BY BA - as the creative trio of Sessegnon, Adam Johnson and James McClean have all failed to spark so far.
Stephane Sessegnon: "It’s clear at the moment that we can still improve a lot. We know that offensively we’ve had a few difficulties this season.
“It’s unfortunate that we haven’t been able to show more going forward over the opening two months.
“But we’ve got to keep our confidence and continue to work hard, and I’m sure the goals will come.
“We’re not creating those chances and again on Sunday, neither me or Fletch (Steven Fletcher) saw a lot of the ball, not as many as we’d have liked definitely.
“It was always going to be difficult for us after we conceding a goal within three minutes.
“Newcastle were able to get men behind the ball. They kept their shape and we didn’t have many chances to get a goal back.
“It’s hard in those circumstances and we needed to do more to create a goal.
“But then after we got the equaliser, we could have even gone on to get all three points.
“It was important to get the late goal because we hadn’t found it easy to break them down.
“We didn’t play well during the game, but at the end, that goal gave us a draw.
“It is so important not to lose that match, and we were able to get on level terms.”