'No excuses' - Tony Mowbray admits Sunderland well below required standard in latest setback

Tony Mowbray said there were ‘no excuses’ after Sunderland put in an desperately disappointing performance at home to Huddersfield Town.

Sunderland welcomed the Championship strugglers, who had won just 1 of their previous 11 matches, to Wearside and fell to a 2-1 home defeat despite being given 76% of the possession.

The teams traded set-piece goals before the break but Delano Burgzorg scored on the counter-attack midway through the second half to hand the visitors the spoils.

It was the performance that was the big worry for supporters, though, with Sunderland playing slow, predictable, monotonous football throughout.

Mowbray was downbeat after the match before admitting to supporters that it just wasn’t good enough.

"It was a frustrating night for us,” Mowbray said after the game. “I was disappointed with the goals we gave away, one a set-piece and the second was a ridiculous goal really. There are no excuses.

“We have to congratulate them, say well done for playing their game and making it difficult for us and getting the points. We have to try and be better on Saturday.

"Obviously we are disappointed with the result, disappointed with the performance, we lacked a bit of energy tonight.

"We lacked creativity to break down their defence as well. It wasn't a day where we had to show huge amounts of effort, it was a day where we had to show huge amounts of creativity and guile and I'd suggest that was sadly lacking.

"We know how they play and what they were going to do. I was frustrated with the performance really because it's not the first time we have faced a team that puts a lot of men behind the ball and it's not the first time we have struggled to break them down and score goals.”

It was the latest setback for Sunderland in a run that is now just two wins and five defeats in their last eight matches. 

They will try to start putting that right at Millwall on Saturday, although the pressure has now started to build on Mowbray without a doubt.

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