Sunderland suffered a shock loss to Port Vale in the FA Cup over the weekend

Gus Poyet has hailed an 'incredible' achievement after Sunderland passed 40 Premier League points for the campaign - and urged fans to stick by Régis Le Bris despite the disappointment of the shock FA Cup defeat to Port Vale.

The Black Cats were knocked out in the fifth round by the League One club, who currently sit bottom of the third tier and ten points adrift of safety. Poyet's dramatic spell as Sunderland head coach was consistently marked by cup draw, with a brilliant run to the League Cup final offset by two acrimonious FA Cup defeats. Poyet says the defeat at Vale Park would be a learning curve for Le Bris, who he defended despite the missed opportunity for the Black Cats.

"I'm super happy because this [40 points] is [an] incredible achievement," Poyet said, speaking via Gambling.com where players find the best UK online casinos.

"In the beginning of the season, everybody was thinking because the two previous seasons when the three teams when straight back down, they're going to go down, everybody was the same. And Sunderland, as a club, as a group of directors and recruitment, they've done an absolutely fantastic job in the summer and that gave the platform to the manager to achieve this so early, so it's nice for everybody. So I think it's a great achievement and it's something that you need to embrace.

"I know people will talk about the cup but being in the Premier League is the most important thing. Nobody remembers [down the line] because that's what happens in football. You know when they say, I don't know, you know, people are talking about Arsenal maybe winning the league but it's 'not the right way' because it's only corners. In 20 years time, nobody will remember. In the end Arsenal will be the Champion or not and this is what people will remember. With me, my first cup game in the run to the final, it was Southampton and we made a few changes and nobody cared because we were bottom of the table. And then we played Chelsea and I made a few changes, okay, but with 1-0 down and 20 minutes to go, we throw everything on and then we equalise and then we won in extra time. Fabio Borini and Ki didn't start the game, okay, and then obviously in the semi-final you play your best team. But then in the FA Cup, I did similar and we lost against Bradford and I got destroyed. Now the situation is, I was doing the same.

"My aim was to stay in the Premier League and you have to make decisions depending on where you are because if you tell me before playing Southampton that we're going to play Chelsea in the quarter-finals, Man United in semi-finals and Man City in the final, I will say to you: we play the second team, we are not going to get through. And then we did, so there is no explanation. And I feel, yes, sad for the coach because I know that he had an objective and I think when you have that kind of game in the cup, I prefer to play the worst team in the competition but at home. Because it reminds me of the 90s, that pitch the other day. For a team that wants to play that kind of football and is used to play that football week in, week out, I know how difficult it was to play that game. It's like it's not his first season but it's like 'welcome to England', you know? Welcome to England in the cup games and that's something that you learn through experiences and fortunately, okay, it couldn't be on this day."

Poyet said it would be a harsh lesson for many at Sunderland about the importance of the FA Cup but reiterated his view that Le Bris is an 'outstanding' head coach.

"I understand it's the FA cup and this is different, I have explained this all over the world," Poyet said.

"I played cup games in Spain, I won the Copa del Rey and up to the semi-finals, nobody cares.

"I played the cup in France when I was there and up to semi-finals, nobody cares and then it came to England and I played one game for Chelsea - a game that everybody knew we would win three, four nil and the stadium was packed. I went, 'wow, okay, this is what the cup means here'. You need to learn this through experience. You need to know but also people need to realise that the head coach has a job to do and we have some objectives that we need to achieve and sometimes through these decisions, yeah, it can affect our relationship [with fans] but me, I stick with the coach, the coach is outstanding and he's done something incredible in the last year and a half so it's a bad spell or a bad game and that's it, forget it and move forward."

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Le Bris: We had to protect Xhaka for Premier League run-in

One of the key calls that divided opinion in Sunderland’s loss was the decision not to start Granit Xhaka on the poor Vale Park pitch, something Le Bris insists will benefit the Black Cats in the long run.

“Yeah, it's important [to manage him],” Le Bris explained.

“I think the team is better with him but we had three days in a week. It was really important to manage his load. We didn't take the risk until at the end, because we know that he can change just a bit the dynamic. But for the future of Sunderland, we need Granit in good shape.”

Your next Sunderland read: The early Sunderland and Brighton team and injury news with Régis Le Bris hopeful of key returnees