Alex Neil delivers this verdict as Sunderland suffer yet another defeat and sends message to players

Connor Wickham scored the winner for MK Dons as the hosts were twice caught on the break at the Stadium of Light, the 2-1 defeat seeing them drop out of the play-off places.

Ross Stewart had raised hopes of a turnaround in form when he cancelled out Mo Eisa’s opener, but Wickham’s goal means it is now five games without a win.

“My overwhelming emotion is frustration,” Neil said.

“I thought in the first half the game was probably more even. I thought they started quite brightly, but I thought we grew into the game.

"Just before half-time we were better, so it was probably 50-50. I thought in the second half, we were the better side. I thought we pinned them in and I thought our defensive structure was excellent.

“We got into good areas, but we risked the ball in the central area and we got counter-attacked twice and lost the game off the back of it. That’s the biggest frustration. Our defensive structure when we were attacking was disappointing for both goals. But equally, we gave the ball away cheaply to little or no pressure. That’s certainly my biggest frustration because I thought in terms of structure, strategy and tactics, we got the majority of that right. We just made some silly errors that cost us the match.

“If it’s really good play from them, then you’ve got to tip your hat to them to a certain extent. It wasn’t. We gave a cheap ball away in the middle of the pitch, and did the same in the first half as well. We play into an area we shouldn’t, and the biggest frustration for us is we spoke all week about not risking the ball in those central areas.

“When we moved the ball from side to side and doubled up on them, we looked like a really good team. But when we then start making rash decisions or poor decisions, it naturally comes back to haunt you. That’s exactly what happened.

“At this stage, I’m still finding out about my team and the group. What they did display to me today is they can take information on board and carry it out. It’s just then individual decision making when you’ve got possession.

“We don’t want to be dictatorial in that sense, saying you’ve got to get the ball and pass it there, there’s got to be an element of freedom for your more creative and flair players to make decisions when they get into good areas. Unfortunately, for us, in some areas today, we got some of those decisions wrong.”

Neil admitted that he was concerned by his side’s response to adversity within games, which was often referenced even before his arrival.

"Once we got the equaliser I was extremely confident that we could go on and win,” he said.

"Ultimately we’ve made a bad decision and shot ourselves in the foot.

"I don't see worrying signs, what is probably a concern is that when we make a bad decision, or something goes against us, we don’t react well. We then overcomplicate it, take too many touches, run into areas we shouldn’t, don’t move it quick enough.”

Neil admitted that too many of his players were too cautious during the first half in particular, and revealed that he urged them to be braver at the break.

Neil is keen to harness the Sunderland support after yet another attendance in excess of 30,000, but admits that his players need to be much pro-active. The Black Cats did improve after the introduction of Jack Clarke and Elliot Embleton, before Wickham’s goal significantly affected their progress.

“That was my first game here,” he said.

“I know what’s expected. The first thing I said to them at half-time was, ‘See this stadium here – do you think you should play the ball backwards when you can play forwards?’ Because the first thing you hear when they play backwards is sighing, and I can understand that.

“We want to be progressive with our passing and play forwards. So the first thing I said was, ‘When you’ve got the opportunity to play forwards, and you can do so with a bit of quality, do so. Don’t resort to coming back’. We don’t want to be a team that plays a hundred passes in our own half and gets nowhere.

" I thought we got the balance of that much better in the second half and caused more problems. We had much more final-third entries and we need to make sure we strike that balance much better, but the players at the moment are still finding out about what I want.

"I thought for large parts today, they did that well, apart from the errors we made.”

Neil has limited time in which to engineer a turnaround, with Burton Albion visiting the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night after losing heavily to Ipswich Town on Saturday.

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