Phil Parkinson reacts to Sunderland's first league defeat and explains what wrong against Portsmouth

The Black Cats saw their unbeaten league start come to an abrupt end, with John Marquis and Marcus Harness on the scoresheet in a 3-1 defeat.

Charlie Wyke had equalised shortly after Harness’ opening goal, but Sunderland were second best in an insipid first-hald display.

They rallied at the start of the second half, but were caught on the break in the final ten minutes.

Luke O’Nien brought down Ryan Williams and was shown a second yellow card, with Marquis converting the penalty to settle the contest.

Parkinson bemoaned the early slackness in possession that gave Portsmouth a foothold in the contest, similar to the way the Black Cats have asserted themselves in many of their games so far this season.

“We've discussed many times since I came here, through pre-season as well and into this season, that teams are going to come and press us early in games,” Parkinson said.

“We need to play in the right areas of the pitch, and just too many times we didn't make the right choice of pass.

“Portsmouth, to be fair to them, were strong, physical and closed us down. That's exactly we've been playing and they reversed that onto us.

“We didn't respond as well to that as I would have liked until half time, after which we were a lot better.

“We just didn’t start the game well enough,” he added.

"Portsmouth didn’t surprise us in the way the played, they pressed us, they were physical, we had too many square passes, and we gave the ball away too cheaply. We got punished for that, with too many players who weren’t at it in terms of decision making, playing the right ball at right time.

“It was a good response after the break, we had a really good period in the game but we needed a goal in that period and we didn’t get one. There were then a couple of injuries that just disrupted the game a little. We looked the most likely at that time, but they were a dangerous team on the counter.”

Parkinson said that Sunderland staff who had watched back the penalty incident suggested O’Nien had not made contact with Williams, but the Black Cats are unable to appeal yellow cards regardless.

The Black Cats boss had decided to persist with O’Nien despite the availability of Tom Flanagan, who had started the season in that position on the left of the back three.

Parkinson said O’Nien had been ‘magnificent’ for him this season, while Lynden Gooch’s attacking form in recent games explained his continued presence at wing-back.

Flanagan looks certain to return to the side in O’Nien’s absence on Tuesday night, with Parkinson confirming on Friday that he had played a full part in training last week.

“Tom's ankle had swollen considerably on his return from international duty, so he went for a scan and as a result of that we wanted a specialist to look at it,” Parkinson had explained.

“When he did, he just said it was bruising. So while there was discomfort, the specialist said that as long as Tom could carry on, he felt he'd be alright.”

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