John O'Shea: Kevin Ball has been fantastic

John O’Shea (R) with former Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio

Sunderland centre-back John O’Shea has backed interim manager Kevin Ball for the future.

Kevin Ball, who is currently in-charge of the Black Cats, has been appointed as the caretaker manager after the sacking of Paolo Di Canio.

Ball himself has admitted that he would like to be considered for the position on a permanent basis.

Sunderland owners are busy looking for a new manager and Gus Poyet seems to be the front-runner for the post.

Speaking to Sky Sports after Sunday’s defeat against Liverpool, O’Shea said: “He’s been fantastic.

“Everything is fairly straightforward. You know exactly where you lie with Bally and the players have enjoyed it.

“Hopefully that will continue but we’ll wait and see.”

Even though Emanuele Giaccherini kick-started a comeback for the Black Cats in the second half, it was too little too late for Sunderland as Liverpool won the match with a fairly easy margin, 3-1, with 2 goals coming in from Luis Suarez.

Kevin Ball said: “We are disappointed with the result, but in the second half it was a fantastic reaction to going 2-0 down. I didn’t think 3-1 was a fair reflection of the game.

“If you look at today as a whole, I think we put in a good performance.”