Sunderland lost in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Vale Park on Sunday

Sunderland's FA Cup defeat to Port Vale represented a major missed opportunity in their campaign, the Black Cats producing a laboured performance against the League One strugglers when a win would have left them one round away from a Wembley semi-final.

It was a bad day from a sporting perspective, particularly now that they will face an enforced three-week break after the upcoming Tyne-Wear derby: It will up to Régis Le Bris and his players to ensure that a brilliant campaign does not fizzle out in its closing stages. This performance and defeat was also bad from a business perspective, though, and will sting for the club's board and ownership. While a long way from the riches of the Premier League, FA Cup prize money has improved in recent years to the point where a good run can make a genuine difference to a club's balance sheet. Across the three rounds in which Sunderland featured this year, the club banked £210,000 in broadcast fees. Their wins at Everton and Oxford United also banked them £248,500 in prize money, taking the club's financial boost from the competition to nearly half a million. That's before gate receipts are factored in, which are shared between clubs after certain operating expenses are accounted for. While the ties at Vale Park and the Kassam Stadium were not big money spinners, a capacity crowd at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium will have likely benefited the Black Cats to a six-figure or near tune. In total, Sunderland are expected to have banked in excess of £500,000 from their three ties.

Losing in the fifth round will be all the more frustrating for Sunderland because they had reached the point of the competition where that financial boost can quickly pass above £1 million. A win at Vale Park would have landed them £238,500 in additional prize money, taking their pot from the cup to near seven-figures if not beyond. It would then have set up a hugely lucrative quarter final in terms of gate receipts, whether the game was played at the Stadium of Light or elsewhere. Another six-figure broadcast fee would have followed, while a win in the final eight would have banked £477,000 in prize money. Perhaps Sunderland would have been handed a brutally difficult quarter-final draw, but had they managed to navigate their way through to the final stages then a further £530,000 is guaranteed even for the losers of the semi finals.

A good cup run is now pretty good business even for Premier League clubs, and his disappointing defeat was costly. Of course, a cursory glance at top-tier prize money offers a perhaps sobering reminder of the levels involved. Last season, Southampton earned £109.2 million for finishing bottom of the division while finishing tenth earned Brentford just shy of £140 million. Financially, there is still a vast amount for Sunderland to play for in their final league fixtures and the difference between just a few places in the table can in the end make a big difference in prize money. It's not hard to see why this famous old competition has become something of an afterthought for so many clubs both in the Premier League or striving to get there - but this was still a costly loss for the Black Cats.

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Régis Le Bris on Sunderland’s FA Cup defeat

“In this competition, it's more about mindset, fighting spirit, rather than the tactical or technical qualities," Le Bris said.

"Probably, we were not consistent enough [in these areas].

“I think some of the players were at their level, but especially to create the solution today, we were not good enough. The pitch levels everything. It's not an excuse, but it is what it is. The conditions are the conditions. Even with that, I think we should have found a solution, and it wasn't the case. For our player, you always need to experience different situations. Sometimes it's tough, and even negative, because of the result. I hope they will learn from this experience.

“We won the two previous fixtures in the FA Cup, and it wasn't easy, Everton and Oxford,” Le Bris added.

“So we showed that we wanted to [progress], but sometimes you can't. You need to accept how relentless the competition is, so it's about key moments. We still need to learn. I think our team is really young. There are 14 new players in the squad that you can't manage every situation. So I hope it will be a good experience for the future. Sometimes it's negative, but it's even stronger [for you]. So I hope it will help our players.

“After the game [my message] was mainly about performance. It's fragile - three days before, we won at Leeds. It was an important game and it wasn't easy to win there at Leeds, we deserve full credit for that. Then after that, at the professional level, you have to reset quickly, change your mind, and go like it was your first time in professional football. It's not easy to do that, so you have to learn it.”

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