DESPITE knowing certain decisions from officials have hardly helped Sunderland in recent weeks, striker Kenwyne Jones is in no mood to make excuses for the club's Premier League plight.
With Bolton due to arrive at the Stadium of Light tomorrow, the Black Cats head into the crucial fixture having failed to win any of their last four matches.
It is not something new to Sunderland, who now occupy their worst position of the season and are only spared bottom spot by the paucity of Derby County.
The comprehensive Boxing Day defeat to Manchester United has left Sunderland staring at the prospect of a third relegation to the Championship inside five years.
After winning just one of their last 13 fixtures in the Premier League, Roy Keane's men are two points adrift of Wigan after their success over Newcastle United.
Things could well have been different had Steve Bennett not cruelly ruled out what seemed a perfectly legitimate headed winner from Danny Collins in injury-time against Aston Villa on December 15.
And they would have been marginally better had Steve Tanner's assistant referee not raised his flag for a goal when goalkeeper Craig Gordon tried to stop Stephen Hunt's last-gasp winner from crossing the line at Reading.
Instead, the situation is worrying. If Sunderland fail to overcome Bolton then Keane will see in the New Year as the manager of a club in the drop zone.
Jones, a £6m buy from Southampton in the summer, is not looking to blame anyone for Sunderland's dreadful position. He just wants to see a quick improvement.
"It's going to be frustrating for you when you suffer things like we have in the last few weeks," said Jones.
"The decisions and the results have all been frustrating to deal with. But you have to move on from all of the set-backs. If we can do that, and I'm sure we can, we will be able to come out of this OK.
"It can be demoralising for players to suffer from bad decisions but I don't think you can blame that on the result against United.
"We had one bad decision, then we had another a couple of weeks later. But they happen, there's no point at this stage looking back on those bad weeks.
"When you look at the table you know you need to pick up points in all the games but it is when you face the teams around you that you have to come good.
"Saturday against Bolton will be no different. We all believe in ourselves."
Jones had a new strike partner for the first half against United in the shape of highly-rated 17-year-old Martyn Waghorn.
The left-footed forward, who spent the second half operating as a left-midfielder, was full of energy but failed to have the impact he would have dreamed about.
Nevertheless, after playing alongside the South Shields youngster for the first time, Jones believes the Academy product has a bright future.
"I was pleased to see him come on to the scene against United because he has been doing well on the training ground," said Jones. "You can tell he looks a good player.
"Every player wanted to give him advice but for him it was more about keeping his own head right. He did that and I hope he can keep up that sort of display."
Despite having his name repeatedly linked with a January move to Liverpool and Chelsea, Jones is also going through his own barren spell in front of goal.
He has failed to net in his last eight outings but accepts that it was always going to be a difficult task for him to add to his tally against United.
"We managed to make a couple of chances against Manchester United so that's quite a positive to take," said the 23-year-old.
"In games like that sometimes you fail to make any chances. If we can take that into the game on Saturday then I'm sure we will prove what we are capable of."
There is a slight chance that Keane will hand a return to action to Nyron Nosworthy against Bolton.
Nosworthy has not played since tearing his hamstring in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle on November 10.