'Not good enough': Sunderland boss Mel Reay reacts to heavy opening-day defeat and makes pledge

Sunderland boss Mel Reay has pledged a strong reaction from her Sunderland players after their Championship campaign started with a 5-0 defeat against Birmingham City.

The Black Cats were 3-0 down by half time despite a bright start to the game at St Andrews, with the hosts running out emphatic winners after adding another two goals to their tally after the break. Birmingham have invested strongly in their squad and programme and are widely expected to challenge at the top end of the table this season, but Sunderland themselves came into the campaign full of confidence after a brilliant campaign last time out.

Reay said she had not seen the performance or result coming and said the players were 'mortified'.

"Very, very disappointed," Reay told safc.com.

"I certainly didn't see it coming in terms of the pre-season that we've had, ultimately we know that isn't good enough in terms of the standard we want. There are going to have be some big reflections going into next week.

"We started off quite well, had some great chances. We could have been ahead but this league is so competitive and those are the fine margins, you need to be ruthless. I need to watch the goals we've conceded back but the first one is off our free kick, it's basic things that pride ourselves on in terms of our defensive principles that just weren't there today. We've got 19 league games and you're not going to see another performance like that, I can guarantee that because the players are absolutely mortified. They'll want to put it right quickly, that's not who we are and we won't be defined by one defeat. We know this league is going to be difficult, there's top teams in it and every game will be difficult, so we'll get on the grass, get back to basics, work really hard and hopefully put some points on the board in front of our home fans."

Sunderland are back in action against Southampton at Eppleton on Sunday afternoon, 2pm kick off.