Tony Mowbray has apologised to Sunderland fans after they saw his side 'at their worst' as they fell apart in the second half against Stoke City. The Black Cats were crushed 5-1 at the Stadium of Light, as ex-Sunderland boss Alex Neil enjoyed a winning return to Wearside.
Defeat by a four-goal margin equalled Sunderland's heaviest defeat at the Stadium of Light, and thousands of the 43,000 fans at the game headed for the exits long before full-time. "It's hard for the team to take, it's hard for the supporters, for the club," said Mowbray.
"It was difficult to forsee it, I would suggest, because this team hasn't lost a game by more than two goals since I've been here. We're a team that tries to play possession football and Stoke are a team that tries to nick it off you and break on you, and they obviously did that better than we did what we normally do.
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"I was really frustrated today with our lack of bravery in keeping the ball in positions that we normally would. It didn't feel like a normal Sunderland game where I feel we are dominating and in control.
"In recent games we have struggled to score enough goals to win games we have dominated; today I didn't feel we dominated enough. Is that because Stoke were so good out of possession, closing us down, or was it the lack of bravery from us?
"It was maybe a bit of both, I think. We can't accept that a team is quite good out of possession and they tackle and are aggressive and get tight, because every team is going to do that if they think that is a winning formula against Sunderland.
"So you either change everything, or you just become braver and better at what we do - and we needed to be braver and better today, in my opinion. We give Stoke credit today and we keep pushing on with playing what we believe is the right way for this team to play and I hope it has given people a lot of joy over the season so far.
"We're not happy today and supporters won't be happy today - I can go as far as to apologise to the supporters who came today because we are only trying to be the best version of what we are, create an identity of a team that can dominate football matches and be good with the ball. It didn't feel like we were dominating the game at any stage, we couldn't get through and we sort of lost confidence.
"The disappointing thing for me is that, OK if you lose confidence, but you have to run and you have to compete and put your body on the line for the team. The day I walked into this club everybody was saying to me that the fans will be happy this season if you make sure we are not dragged into a relegation battle, and I think the team has done an amazing job.
"At their best they are exhilarating and so exciting, but today we were at our worst. It was concerning for me how the goals kept on going in."
Josh Laurent put the Potters in front five minutes before half-time, but the real damage was done after the break. Tyrese Campbell scored twice in five minutes before the hour, Alex Pritchard briefly reduced the arrears to 3-1, but Dwight Gayle added two more goals to complete the rout.
Mowbray had made a double substitution at half-time, but resisted the temptation to make more changes in the second half saying: "We could have made some changes at 5-1, but I'm not sure it was right to stick three 18 or 19-year-old kids from another country on the pitch and expose them. I felt we should just leave the team on that was out there.
"Normally I try to give the young lads games to get them used to the Championship but I don't think today was the day to put a bunch of kids on when we were getting beat so heavily."
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