Carlton Fairweather became Sunderland Ladies boss in December 2014

Fairweather: Sunderland Ladies poor run due to 'complacency'

Sunderland Ladies manager Carlton Fairweather admits his side's recent run of poor results is partly down to "complacency" from his players.

The Lady Blackcats' 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Continental Cup on Wednesday saw them go a fourth game without a win.

Fairweather says players picking up "knocks" has also been a factor.

"It's probably to do with complacency from some of the players and obviously the changes that we've made," he said.

Sunderland, who are in their first season in Women's Super League One, claimed six straight victories in all competitions before suffering two defeats and two draws.

The results briefly took them to the top of the WSL1 table but after failing to win in August, the club now trail leaders Chelsea by three points in the league and are third in their Cup group.

Sunderland Ladies have failed to win any of their four matches in August

Fairweather insists the problems lie within his own squad.

"We haven't finished off the chances that we'd normally finish", he said.

"We've probably been a little bit complacent so I'll put it down to that rather than teams have found us out."

Fairweather says that "quite a few players" are currently carrying niggles, including WSL1 top scorer Beth Mead, and that the injuries played a part in the loss to Liverpool.

"The performance probably wasn't great, we didn't probably deserve anything from the game," he said.

"One or two players have got niggles. Tonight we've made a couple of changes so that was probably a factor.

"There's quite a few at the moment, we've got Meado playing with knocks, as well as Steph Roche and Tori (Victoria Greenwell).

"It's ankles, joints and just over use at the moment."