Joe Nicholson reacts after Sunderland's 2-1 defeat against Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium.
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00:00 Outside the Bet365 stadium where Sunderland have been beaten 2-1 by Stoke City.
00:07 A really disappointing day for the Black Cats against their former manager Alex Neil.
00:12 It was a slow start from Sunderland today and a few players have been away on international duty
00:18 and a few players have come back into the starting eleven following injuries.
00:21 Alex Pritchard and Pierre Equa were recalled who were both out before the international break
00:26 and maybe that kind of disjointed preparation kind of told in the first half.
00:30 Sunderland gave the ball away too often, they were allowing too many crosses to come into their box
00:35 and they fell behind inside seven minutes when Stoke forward Ryan Meehan managed to open the scoring.
00:41 There were some strong appeals for handball and it looked like the ball did hit the Stoke striker on the arm
00:47 so that probably should have been chalked off but the goal stood and Sunderland did actually react quite well to that.
00:52 Equalised within three minutes when Joe Bellingham's shot was saved and then Jack Clark was there
00:57 to convert his eighth goal of the season but Sunderland didn't kick on from there.
01:00 Again in that first half they were giving the ball away too often and allowed Stoke to see more of the ball
01:06 and to cause problems, put the ball into Sunderland's box but it was one all at half time.
01:12 Sunderland actually had a very good chance to take the lead before half time when the ball was presented to
01:16 Abdullah Barber, he failed to hit the target from inside the area but a really soft goal that Sunderland
01:21 conceded right after the interval when Luke McNally, the Stoke defender, was allowed a free header to make it 2-1 shortly
01:29 after half time. Sunderland did manage to get a bit more control of the game after that but obviously they were
01:34 chasing the game, creating a few chances. Clark was the most dangerous player on the left hand side for Sunderland,
01:40 had a few efforts when he was cutting inside but didn't really test the Stoke goalkeeper enough.
01:45 He had one save to make from Clark from distance. Sunderland brought on a couple of subs as well,
01:49 Adil Oshish, Mason Berstow came on, Nazir Hussain and they gave Sunderland a bit more attacking intent.
01:56 It was too little, too late and a disappointing loss for the Blackhats. They did have a late penalty appeal at the end
02:02 when Clark was brought down in the box in stoppage time. It looked like it was a strong appeal for a spot kick
02:07 but nothing was given by the referee and Sunderland were not too happy with a few of his decisions again today.
02:13 But a disappointing defeat and day for Tony Mowbray's side. They'll have to go again pretty soon.
02:19 They are away against Leicester City on Tuesday.