Joe Nicholson reacts after Sunderland's 2-1 defeat against Stoke City

Joe Nicholson reacts after Sunderland's 2-1 defeat against Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium.

Transcript

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.