Simon Grayson couldn’t fault his players' effort and commitment following their first defeat of the season.
- Report: Sunderland 0-2 Leeds United.
- As it happened: How the action unfolded on Wearside.
- Gallery: Match snaps from the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland began in the ascendancy with Brendan Galloway flashing a ball across the face of goal which had Lewis Grabban stretching all the way for.
Grabban came to life again shortly afterwards, this time freeing James Vaughan into space before a reverse pass back to the on-loan frontman saw his effort rattle the bar.
But less than 60 seconds later, Leeds dealt Sunderland the ultimate sucker punch when Samuel Saiz arrowed his strike across goal and beyond Jason Steele.
Saiz then turned provider in the second period, clipping a ball to the back post for substitute Stuart Dallas to power home and make the Black Cats pay for not being clinical.
Speaking post-match, Grayson delivered his thoughts.
“I don’t think you could fault the players' effort, commitment and work rate because they were going right to the final whistle,” he said.
“The key moments in the game were the difference.
“For 20 minutes, we started the game really well and Grabban’s effort has hit (Liam) Cooper on the head and then hit the bar.
“Unfortunately, they went down the other end and 60/70 seconds later and we are 1-0 down and that was against the run of play.
“When you look at the course of the game we probably worked hard enough but just didn’t have that bit of quality to win the game.
“It is a possibility that (tiredness) might have played its part,” he continued.
“I don’t think there are many teams in this division who have had as demanding schedule as what we have had. The teams we have been playing against the number of games we have had.
“I could’ve changed it round but I also felt the team we had was capable of getting a performance tonight.
“And what happens when you go a goal down you need an extra spark of quality to get back into the game and unfortunately that’s something we lacked tonight.
“I couldn’t have asked much more from the players given how hard they have worked.”
