Lee Johnson delivers verdict on Sunderland's second-half collapse and what went wrong

The Black Cats raced into a 2-0 lead at the Stadium of Light, with Charlie Wyke taking his tally for the season to 30 in all competitions.

Individual errors cost Johnson's side dearly at the start of the second half, and in truth the visitors were much the better side for large parts of the concluding stages.

The Head Coach was left frustrated by individual errors in his defence but conceded that his team lost too many duels all over the pitch.

"The first thing is we've not put them to the sword with the chances we had," Johnson said.

"I'm thinking now, Aiden O'Brien has cut inside and had a shot. We've had a couple of crosses flashed across the box that we just haven't been able to get onto.

"There was some really good play in both halves in terms of our attacking play, and even going into the second half we've had really good chances to finish it off through Charlie Wyke and Lynden Gooch.

"We've then lost too many individual duels in that 25 minutes, and they've thrown caution to the wind in terms of their direct play and their running power from their front four.

"That was our main problem and of course, there's big individual errors as well.

"There were a lot of good things in our attacking play," he added.

"Jack Diamond has come on and shown his exuberance. In the first half we looked bright and terrorized them down their left, but they got through it and then got their goal.

"I think at the moment, that's what changed the game and then of course, the next one is a really poor goal to concede on all levels."

John Coleman's side looked to have more belief for much of the second half, and Johnson conceded that owed in large part to the obvious tension in his team's performance.

"Yeah, and you can give opposition belief with the way that you're playing," he said.

"In that 25 minutes/half hour, we didn't show enough charisma in terms of keeping the ball and in the physical duels, we were bumped too often and they were able to get runners coming off us.

"When we got the ball forward with good play, it wasn't executed well enough in the end.

"The domino effect of too many of those situations left us unable to reset.

"I think you often find players revert to type positionally in those [nervous] moments, and sometimes defenders want it cleared up the pitch and midfielders want to get on every pass, and you can then end up stretched and disjointed out of possession.

"That's what I felt happened.

"I tried to change it by getting the extra midfielder on but it didn't really work on the day because we didn't have any players receiving, moving to create the angles where you can be brave and control the game."

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