The Black Cats are four points clear of the bottom three with Newcastle and Boro occupying the relegation slots along with bottom side West Bromwich Albion.

Middlesbrough face a daunting home game against top of the table Manchester United today while Alan Shearer's Newcastle must visit Liverpool tomorrow in the match that precedes Sunderland's home clash with FA Cup finalists Everton.

Sbragia said: "I'd much rather have another three or four points on the board - that would take so much of the pressure off.

"But, having said that, I'd rather be where we are now, than where the sides in the bottom three are.

"There's a lot of pressure on everyone involved and it all comes down to who handles it the best in the run-in.

"We haven't had a good record against Everton recently but that's absolutely no reason to be defeatist.

"We have to believe we can get at least a point - and preferably three - against them.

"We've got home advantage, we'll have our fans behind us and we have to make the most of that."

Sbragia has held an inquest into last weekend's 3-0 loss at West Brom and wants his players to put that behind them.

They watched a video re-run earlier in the week of that defeat and Sbragia has called for "honesty" from his players in the remaining four games.

He said: "We did nothing going forward after conceding the first goal at West Brom.

"We didn't force the issue. We knew West Brom would have a lot of the ball, but we had too many players who did not perform.

"We can't carry anyone. We have to be 100% and last week we weren't so we have to start afresh.

"One thing I have always asked for is honesty. We have to stick together and fight for the 90 minutes in the games we have left."

Sbragia was heartened by Sunderland's performance in their last two home games. They might have gained a point against Manchester United, falling to a 1-0 defeat, and scrapped to a vital 1-0 victory over fellow relegation candidates Hull City a fortnight ago.

Sbragia said: "We're at home this weekend and our recent displays have been decent.

"We beat Hull in our last home game and before that we went down to a narrow and maybe slightly unlucky defeat to Manchester United.

"So we've had a half-decent run at home over the last couple of games and I want us to keep that run of form going in the games against Everton this weekend and against Chelsea in our last home game later this month."