Lee Johnson delivers blunt verdict on Sunderland's woeful defeat and admits he has a goalkeeping dilemma

Sunderland’s head coach dropped Lee Burge for the visit to Shrewsbury Town, but a Remi Matthews error proved costly as the hosts cancelled out Aiden O’Brien’s early goal and went on to seal a 2-1 win.

That error proved to be the turning point of the contest, but Sunderland were poor right throughout the team in a dismal second-half showing.

Johnson said his players were ‘too timid’ and were second best in too many departments“It’s mega-disappointing,” Johnson said.

"I think the boys are sat in there and maybe believe we were good enough to get a draw, but I’m not so sure myself. I didn’t think we started well enough in terms of our combination play and passing detail.

“We got our noses in front with a goal which was a really good goal, a great finish, and at that point you’re hoping the lads settle a little bit. But I didn’t think we did settle, they showed quite a lot of hustle and we lost too many duels in the middle of the pitch.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to bring your USP to the game as lot more, earlier, and a lot more aggressively’.

“Individual errors of course have cost us again. But I think it was on the back of too many lost duels, and too many times they skipped by us in the middle of the pitch.

“I think there’s a bit of a slight soft underbelly. I haven’t been here that long, but you’re looking to manage those moments in the game.

"Sometimes it’s quality, sometimes it’s that one that makes the big tackle that sets everybody off. I just thought communication wise, physical contact wise, we were just a bit timid.”

Johnson now faces a big decision as to whether he brings Burge back into the side for the visit of Doncaster Rovers this weekend.

“There was no injury to Lee," he said.

"I just made a selection decision.

“It’s a difficult one, obviously, in terms of what do you do now.

“When I came in, I stuck with Burgey because that was the consistent thing to do – with a back four, both goalkeepers have kept clean sheets.

“You need a strong goalkeeper, I think your goalkeeper is a bit of a spiritual leader in terms of their presence and psychology.

“Remi will be disappointed today that he has made a couple of errors but at least he has owned up to it, he has held his hand up, and that for me is very, very important because then you can rebuild and go again.”

Johnson also had a blunt explanation for the pre-match confusion, when Conor McLaughlin and Luke O’Nien were incorrectly named in the starting XI.

There were echoes of the Papa John’s Trophy clash at Oldham Athletic, when Dion Sanderson was named in the side before the club realised he was cup tied.

"It was a clerical error,” Johnson said.

“We’ll take collective resposibility, but it has happened one too many times.”

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