MIKE DODDS has challenged Sunderland winger Patrick Roberts to use this summer’s pre-season programme to ensure he is back to his very best next term.

Roberts has suffered an injury-hit campaign that has seen him fail to score a single goal in his 20 Championship starts, and having failed to fire in the Black Cats’ Bank Holiday humiliation at the hands of Blackburn, the 27-year-old was dropped to the bench for yesterday’s draw with Bristol City.

Dodds held a heart-to-heart discussion with Roberts in the wake of the Blackburn defeat, in which the winger admitted he had failed to hit top form on a consistent enough basis this season.

The interim head coach feels there are explanations for the drop in performance levels, but remains confident Roberts can be a key part of Sunderland’s efforts next season provided he focuses on establishing a strong foundation during the pre-season period.

“I didn’t think Pat was great against Blackburn,” said Dodds, whose side have now won just one of their last nine matches. “That’s not a pop – I could label that at a lot of players. But we had a really honest conversation around that, and Pat showed real maturity in terms of an admission on his behalf that he was completely below par.

“Pat knows my thoughts. His ability is Premier League, that is without question. Pat’s probably not going to like me at times because I probably need to put some stronger boundaries in with him. That will hopefully get the best out of him.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve only got five games left. When I took over the team, if I’d have had a fully-fit Patrick Roberts, I’m sure the results would have looked completely different.

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“We’ve had an honest conversation about the future, and Pat needs to really knuckle down in pre-season. Pat should be a pillar for this football club, to take us back to the Premier League. For whatever reason, this year hasn’t really gone to plan. We’ve had an honest conversation and Pat has told me some stuff that will remain private between us two, but by his own admission, he hasn’t hit the standards that he probably hit last year.

“But I expect a really big pre-season from Pat, and while I’m not saying I expect him to be new and improved, I do expect a Patrick Roberts who should be playing in the Premier League from next season.”

While Roberts found himself on the bench against Bristol City, coming on for the final 25 minutes as a replacement for Chris Rigg, Jack Clarke was back in the starting line-up for the first time in more than a month.

Sunderland’s leading scorer played the full 90 minutes as he side strove unsuccessfully for a breakthrough, even though Dodds admits that had not been the pre-match plan.

“Jack’s really robust,” he said. “I didn’t want to play him for the 90 minutes. I wanted to see how he felt, but he’s just so robust and he’s got such an engine on him. Don’t get me wrong, I think he tired towards the end of the game, but I think a lot of our players tired and I thought a lot of Bristol City’s players looked really tired too. That’s why the game kind of petered out a little bit.

“To have Jack and Pat back in the dressing room is a huge psychological boost for the group because I’ve had four or five games where it’s been really difficult to get any momentum.

“When you miss players of that quality, it’s not Sunderland that’s going to miss those players, any club in the Championship would miss that quality too.”