Can Sunderland make it third time lucky against Burnley?

The Black Cats boss witnessed a depressing performance at Turf Moor on New Year's Eve when his side were hammered 4-1 in the Premier League.

Moyes was far from happy seven days later when his team played out an FA Cup third round stalemate with the Clarets at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland must improve greatly if they are to beat their rivals in Lancashire and stay in the world's oldest club cup competition.

A crowd of 17,632 watched the two Premier relegation battlers serve up poor fare as Moyes was not shy to admit.

“The result is better, but if you took the goals out of the game down there, it was the same type of game," said the Cats boss.

"It was a poor match and even at Burnley it was a poor game.

"The difference was that we conceded terrible goals there.

"This was a poor game, but we just didn’t concede any goals. It was very similar."

Sunderland were the better team in the first half, though Burnley had the best opportunity when Vito Mannone saved from Sam Vokes.

Jack Rodwell was the home side's best outlet, shooting wide twice while keeper Nick Pope made a comfortable take from his header.

Pope made a superb save from Rodwell in the second half, while Clarets defender James Tarkowski hit the post with a free header from Burnley's first corner.

Moyes said he was not looking for excuses but believes a scrappy encounter was always possible on the first Saturday of the new year.

"That can happen sometimes in the first game after a busy period," he explained.

"That’s not an excuse, but it can have an effect.

"I think we seemed to feel that a wee bit, especially in the second half.”