David Moyes praised George Honeyman’s efforts as Sunderland exited the Emirates FA Cup at the hands of Burnley at Turf Moor.
The youngster was named in Moyes’ starting XI for the first time this season as the Scot made a host of changes with Jermain Defoe and John O’Shea dropping to the bench.
However, the Beekeeper was unable to prevent Tendayi Darikwa's ball into the box as he flew down the right flank and delivered an inch perfect cross for Sam Vokes to guide past Vito Mannone on the stroke of half-time.
The Black Cats rallied after the break, though, Seb Larsson sent a curling effort over the bar before Adnan Januzaj went tumbling under a challenge inside the box.
Sunderland had their chances but were stung in the closing stages as second-half substitute Andre Gray slipped in behind and made no mistake from 12 yards as he delivered the knockout blow.
Speaking post-match, Moyes shared his frustration over the Lads’ cup exit but paid particular tribute to Honeyman.
“I’m really disappointed because we are threadbare at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve gone again with a team that we were hoping to win with but we have found it difficult against Burnley in all our games.
“There were some positives – George played well for us tonight and we played with three at the back to see if we could stop Burnley bullying us a little bit defensively.
“It worked for parts of the game and we did ok but we gave away a poor goal. We were still in the game but the second one was just as bad and that seems to be the nature of us at the moment.
“George played well, though, he trains with the first-team every day and he is around the first-team all the time,” he continued.
“He is at an age where he can come in and handle it and I thought George was a plus for us tonight.”