Stoke City boss Michael O’Neill delivers Sunderland verdict after Ross Stewart hands Alex Neil the win

After a slow start, the Black Cats took the lead on the stroke of half-time when Ross Stewart’s finish beat goalkeeper Joe Bursik. Sunderland then defended admirably in the second half, while still posing a threat on the break.

The result means Neil’s side have taken eight points from their first five Championship fixtures this season, with ex-Leeds United and Tottenham attacker Jack Clarke grabbing an impressive assist for Sunderland’s goal at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday.

"We lose the ball in their left-back area and then Jack Clarke comes in and plays a long ball, which we should be able to deal with and then it's not a strike that should end in the back of the net," said O'Neill. "It changes the whole psychology of the second half and everything.

"We have to come back out having put ourselves in a difficult position. Second half the nature of the game you could see the frustration in our play.

"It was stop-start, a lot of free-kicks, always suits the team that's ahead in the game. We always emphasise that the ball needs to be in play and we allowed Sunderland to sit back and they did it well and still had a bit of threat from the front two.

"They just had to knock it longer and try to cause us problems. We had one or two opportunities in the second half we could have done better with but saying that it was one of those days we made it difficult for ourselves after a good first half performance."

"He'll get loads of support in here," O'Neill said of Bursik, who was arguably at fault for Stewart’s winning goal. "We've conceded some poor goals at the start of the season and that's hurt us.

"We have to look at how that's happened as a team, not just the goalkeeper. The goals as a whole we've conceded, the nature of the goals, the timing of the goals as well has hurt us."