Inside Sunderland's disappointing night and what went wrong explained

An attack stifled down at source, a valuable moment of pause for Rotherham and some crucial time taken out of the game. It wasn't really a huge surprise that Dan Ballard had been unable to control the ball: at this point he could barely move.

It was a move that told you two things, that this had been a game too far and that it just wasn't going to be for Sunderland.

Was this fatigue, a bad performance, the wrong gameplan? Mowbray said you roll it all up and this is what you get.

The head coach was quick to assume responsibility for the defeat afterwards, saying that his setup had been wrong and played a big part in what was an insipid first-half performance, one that was worlds way from some of the football this exciting young side has produced for much of this season.

Mowbray's logic was that like Millwall, Rotherham United are a side whose strength is their intensity and who like playing against sides who want to dominate possession. It gives them the chance to set traps, to nick the ball and to break in numbers. Mowbray wanted to counter that by going a little bit more direct, so JackClarke pushed up alongside Joe Gelhardt and Alex Pritchard moved out to the left wing.

Instead Sunderland were overrun in midfield, not really able to hold the ball up and inviting waves of attacks. The only positive at half time was they were still just about in the contest - for large spells it had felt eerily reminiscent of this team's last ill-fated trip to the New York Stadium.

In a familiar shape Sunderland looked much better in the second half, and the second goal came just when they were beginning to really assert themselves. Ironically, it was a goal which underlined why Mowbray had proceeded with such caution, Neil caught in possession with little cover behind him. The impressive Tariqe Fosu found the perfect pass and from there, Sunderland were exposed. They showed admirable spirit not to go under, and if there was a positive from the night it was that Gelhardt got a goal to sit alongside his improving performances, a striker slowly but surely finding the wavelength of the players around him.

Though Mowbray took some of the blame, this was also a defeat that underlined so many of the realities which have consistently led him to talk down the prospect of a play-off push.

He dropped Patrick Roberts to the bench to guard against injury and his absence was obvious - the winger changing the flow of the game on his introduction. In key positions players who have had outstanding campaigns to date were a touch short of their best and it showed, Neil's error for the second goal a perfect example.

Mowbray defended his team afterwards by very fairly pointing out how long it had been since they lost away from him in the league (October last year, for the record).

They are on the right trajectory, but one point from two is undoubtedly a setback in their unlikely top-six tilt. Mowbray had long warned there'd be moments such as these.