Sunderland's shambolic season unravelling at an alarming rate: What we learned from dire Gillingham defeat

Instead, after eight defeats in 12 in all competitions, the Black Cats - dumped out of all three cup competitions - are 11th in League One, five points adrift of the play-offs and a whopping 10 off the automatic places.

Parkinson rolled the dice at Gillingham with six changes and it backfired. Here’s what we learned:

Sunderland had set up for a point