Mark Atkinson rued his side’s slow start at Stoke City on Saturday as Sunderland endured a tough afternoon.
A brace from Venancio Da Silva and one from Abdoulaye Toure handed Stoke the initiative with 22 minutes played.
Jordan Greenidge then struck a fourth before Sam Greenwood and Benji Kimpioka managed to claw the deficit back to just two as Sunderland rallied in the closing stages of the opening half.
But the Potters motored on after the restart, scoring twice in 60 seconds through Toure and Greenidge to put the game beyond doubt.
Kimpioka managed to pull one back with his second of the game but Atkinson was left overall disappointed with his side’s showing.
“It was a really slow start and we quite often do that when we stay overnight,” he said.
“We had a really slow start and that just cost us heavily in the end.
“We tried a different formation, but it would be wrong of me to say that, that was the reason for our performance.
“It was a below par performance and that’s something we have got to make sure doesn’t happen again.
“We needed to show more purpose and we needed to take the match to them more but overall it was a below par performance in terms of what we have been doing of late.”
