David Moyes praised his players following Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The Black Cats produced a spirited performance against the title chasers and for large parts of the game they were on top, but the Citizens' quality eventually proved decisive.
Sergio Aguero opened the scoring as Sunderland were punished for failing to take their chances - Fabio Borini missing a golden opportunity after Jermain Defoe struck the post - with Leroy Sane slamming in a sublime second before the hour mark.
But speaking post-match Moyes praised his players despite defeat, hailing their work ethic from the opening whistle until the last.
“I thought our players did a really good job of containing them and stopping them, while also creating some opportunities for ourselves.
“We’re not in the same league as far as budgets go and we’re nowhere near the top of the league, but I think you have to praise our players for their effort and commitment.”
He continued: “Last weekend it hit the crossbar and didn’t bounce right for us and today it hits the post and the result is the same.
“Eventually one of them will go in but we have create more chances to do that, for example we had three great opportunities to score for corners and it’s probably one of the first games where we’ve looked like doing that.
“They did [execute the game plan] and we have boys that can run – Didier, Seb – and I thought the two full-backs were excellent today, so we put it to them and they did everything they could.
“We just lacked a bit of quality, which I’ve mentioned a few times, which is what makes the difference.”