'He's had an issue with time keeping': Sunderland coach explains Benji Kimpioka omission after 'discipline' issue

The young Black Cats were comfortably beaten 4-0 by West Brom at Eppleton CW, Hetton, and have now picked up just one point from 15 games in Premier League 2, Division 2 this season.

Kiimpioka, who has featured and scored for the first team this campaign, came on at half-time but struggled to make an impact up front.

When asked why the 19-year-old didn’t start the game, Sunderland’s lead coach Elliott Dickman told the Echo: “Let’s just say he’s had an issue with time keeping.

“There’s obviously a discipline that we have around the squad and his time keeping hasn’t been fantastic.

“That was his lesson tonight, the fact that he was late for training so that was why he was one of the subs.”

Dickman didn’t hide his frustration after yet another defeat, Sunderland’s second successive 4-0 loss in the league.

“I’m disappointed that we keep saying the same things over and over to the players, keep working on the same things over and over,” added Dickman.

“I’m just disappointed that when you think you’re getting somewhere and there are signs of improvement and then tonight it seems like you’ve taken two or three steps back.

“What I did say is that I’m tired of saying the same things, I’m tired of talking about the same mistakes that we made, the same issues that we have.

“We have to start getting better, ultimately that’s what I’ve said.”

When asked what his side can work on to improve their dismal run of results, Dickman said: “We’ve worked on everything to death if I’m honest, we’ve done loads of defending, we’ve done loads of attacking, loads of other things.

“Like I say, it’s just one of those nights where it hasn’t gone for us, I’m quite proud of the group in terms of how hard they work and look after each other but I just think tonight we didn’t really do that.

“When you are not doing that which is one of our qualities it’s always going to be a difficult night.”