Sunderland boss Lee Johnson is confident his side can get their League One automatic-promotion bid back on track after a third consecutive defeat.

Having lost 1-0 at home to Charlton and 5-1 at Rotherham, the Black Cats went down 3-0 to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Theo Corbeanu, Florian Kamberi and Lee Gregory struck for the Owls to leave Sunderland fifth, five points off second-placed Plymouth.

Johnson said: “I’ve got to be careful because I don’t want to come across like I’m delusional but I’m pretty confident that we can turn this form around pretty quickly.

“I think we’ve got some good players coming back to fitness and I think we have been on the end of a Championship run that’s exposed us a little bit in terms of the extra game on Saturday, in which we were really poor – there’s no denying that.

“I didn’t feel today that we were ever out of the game. I felt like we were the better side in between the boxes and I thought they were the better side in both boxes. They defended their box better than us and obviously they scored the three goals and were a bit sharper.

“I don’t think it was a reason to throw the baby out with the bath water as much today. Obviously, it’s my job now to take the heat and any pressure that comes with it.

“I have got a huge belief in what we’re going to do. We’ll be alright. We’ll go on a run.”

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore was delighted with a clean sheet.

He said: “I’m pleased we got the three goals, but most importantly was the clean sheet for me. Being a former defender, I was really delighted with that.

“I always felt that we could score goals today and everyone to a man played their part. It was a good, clean, comprehensive performance.

“That is the type of performance we want to keep building on. I thought they were excellent with their work off the ball.

“It needed to be that performance in terms of the team and the opposition we were up against.

“We’ve been determined, we’ve been dogged and building resilience. We spoke at the start of the season about building a platform and being hard to beat and I think we have been that over the weeks.

“When we have got our noses in front, with lapses in concentration we’ve been punished for it. If you look at the overall performances, I’ve been delighted. When you look at today, we had a more complete performance.”