The Black Cats travel to Loftus Road tomorrow, eager to find a way to bring back some precious points in their fight for survival. 

Sunderland are a point adrift at the bottom of the table, but QPR have only one win in five, sparking hopes of bringing something, anything back from London.

Speaking to the Sunderland Echo, Coleman said he still has hope of surviving the drop: "I’ll only sit there and say ‘that’s it’ when it is it, if we can’t mathematically do anything. That’s when I’ll say I gave it my best shot and we didn’t have enough. But that’s nowhere near yet."

Sunderland lost 3-0 in midweek against Aston Villa and are currently on a run of just one win in 12 matches. Despite that appalling form, Coleman's men are still only four points from safety.

"Maybe we haven’t earned enough because we haven’t won in eight games, but the gap is still only four points – the other teams around us haven’t exactly been pulling up trees either. Somebody will and I hope and pray – and I have to make sure – that it’s us. It’s there for us to go and do that because people have written us off."

Tomorrow, all of their relegation rivals face teams fighting for promotion, Burton host Bristol City, Birmingham are at Cardiff and Barnsley go to Middlesbrough, making it likely any  points will see them reel in those above them.

In their remaining ten games Sunderland have relegation six-pointers against Reading, Burton and Sheffield Wednesday, but similarly they have tough matches with Fulham, Wolves and Derby to negotiate.

It's going to go right to the wire in their bid to escape relegation to League One, a relegation that would see them in the third tier for the first time in 30 years.

The Verdict

Sunderland are a huge club who have no business being at the foot of the Championship, but their plight demonstrates how the order of football can change very quickly indeed. Despite the rallying cry, I fear for Chris Coleman's side. They have a real lack of fire power after the departure of Lewis Grabban and it is hard to see where enough goals are going to come to win them the crucial points.