LORIK Cana admits that Sunderland’s players are short of confidence at the moment, but the Black Cats skipper claims Saturday’s FA Cup defeat at Portsmouth still represented a marked improvement from the previous weekend’s seven-goal mauling at Stamford Bridge.

John Utaka’s double condemned Sunderland to a 2-1 defeat at Fratton Park, and ended the club’s FA Cup interest at the fourth-round stage for the second successive season.

Despite claiming an early lead through Darren Bent, the Wearsiders were unable to see off a Pompey side who are five points away from safety at the foot of the Premier League table.

Yet after contributing to the 7-2 defeat at Chelsea, Cana still feels Saturday’s setback represented progress of a sort.

“If you look at the result, of course it does not look as though we had the right reaction to the Chelsea game.

“But I don’t think we played as badly,” said the Albania international, who returned to his preferred central-midfield position.

“The players coming back made a difference to the team, but we have been eliminated and that is all that counts.

“I thought the quality of the performance was better, there were just too many mistakes for us to win the game.

“If we can get those right, I still think we have the quality to do well.”

Nevertheless, after a run of ten matches in which Sunderland’s only victory came against non-league Barrow, Cana concedes that confidence is an issue.

A number of players appeared hesitant and nervous at the weekend, and their captain admits that morale is low as a result of the club’s current winless run.

Something will have to change quickly, as Sunderland are just four points clear of the relegation zone ahead of Wednesday’s testing Premier League trip to Everton.

“I think confidence is a problem at the moment,” admitted Cana.

“We are not playing with the same freedom we were showing at the start of the season, but that’s football. When you haven’t won for seven or eight games, you lose confidence slowly.

“But we must remember we have quality and experience.

The experienced players have to help their team-mates at times likes this.

“I’m still confident we are a good team when we get all our players back, but we can’t afford to lose our best players.”

Those big players include Craig Gordon, Michael Turner and Kieran Richardson, who were all restored to the starting line-up.

But the description also applies to Lee Cattermole and John Mensah, who were still absent.

Cattermole could be involved at Goodison Park on Wednesday night, and it is hoped that Mensah will also return to full training this week.

“We’ve got three or four players back – (Bolo) Zenden, Turner, Richardson and (Andy) Reid – and they will make a big difference to the team,” said Cana.

“But we hope Lee Cattermole and maybe John Mensah also recover soon as well because they will have a big effect on the team when they are available again.

“If we have our best players fit, we can still do well in the league, but it’s a big, big game at Everton now. They are a tough team and they beat Manchester City in their last game, so it’s going to be a tough battle for us.”