'It's about...': Sunderland boss issues verdict on what went wrong in Ipswich Town defeat

Michael Beale insisted that Sunderland did enough to get something from the game at Ipswich Town and said it was the 'naivety' of his players that prevented them from doing so.

Jack Clarke gave his side the lead in the first half but Kayden Jackson levelled the score shortly afterwards and the hosts scored the winning goal midway through the second half when Conor Chaplin was left free to head home a Leif Davis free kick. Beale bemoaned Adil Aouchiche's decision to foul Davis for the free kick, with the attacking midfielder having not been long introduced by the head coach in place of Abdoullah Ba.

Ipswich had the better of the chances in the closing stages of the game but Beale said his players should have taken something away with them.

"It was a good game, I thought, between two good teams," Beale said.

"As the away team coming here, seventh in the league against second, I thought we had enough of the game to get something out of it. We missed two big chances before we scored in the first half, and then there's a big miss at the start of the second half.

"It's then about how naive we are to give away a free kick when the boy is facing the stand. It's a poor decision to give the free kick away, and then the smallest player on the pitch has had a free header in the middle of the goal. We've only got ourselves to blame. It was a good game, two good sides going at each other and I though that was refreshing. It would have been a good game for the neutral, and it's our naivety that has cost us the points. If we'd have gone back up the road with one point, we'd have been thinking about the ifs and buts in terms of the chances that we had. So to go up the road with nothing is really disappointing.

"To lose the game to a set play is really disappointing, yeah. It's an area that we've been quite good at of late, I think in the last nine or ten games we've not had any issues so it's disappointing that it has reared its head here. I thought there were moments in the first half where we did well, and there were moments where we were sloppy. At the start of the second half Ipswich came for us but it was us who had the big moment with Adil. We had more than one, as well, I think Jobe and Adil got in each other's way at one point and that was another big chance. So it's disappointing, I feel as the away manager we should have taken something from this game. I'm sure Kieran [McKenna] is delighted and felt his team deserved it, because I think the game was finely balanced and it's bitterly disappointing for us."

Saturday's results have seen Sunderland drop out of the play-off positions, though they are level on points with sixth-placed Coventry City.