'Simple': The Sunderland dressing room verdict on Man Utd defeat and what was said in first-half huddle

Trai Hume says Sunderland have to learn their lessons and stick together after a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The Black Cats were punished for a slow start against Ruben Amorim's side on Saturday, with goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko in the first half leaving the visitors with a mountain to climb. Despite delivering an improved performance after the second goal and a formation shift that followed Dan Ballard's introduction from the bench, the hosts held on to take all three points.

Hume said it was important not to overreact after what has broadly been a very positive start to the season, but says the dressing room are well aware that they can't afford a repeat of the slow start.

“First half we started slowly and they started quickly and you’re always going to get punished for that," Hume said.

"It’s just as simple as that, they punished us with two goals. We came in half-time and we were disappointed. We knew we didn’t start well. After that I thought the game was fairly even and if we had started that way it might have been different. But that’s on us. We know that. We need to improve and learn from it.

We know as a team and as a staff that we weren’t good enough in the first half. In the second half we created a few chances. We didn’t take them but if you don’t start well enough you have to learn from it.

“The start to the season has been good. We’re disappointed today that we’ve lost but overall we’ve done well. At home we’ve won games and we’ve drawn and even away we’ve got a draw and a win at tough places. One of those was today but we had a slow start and they’re 2-0 up at half time. We need to stick together and be positive."

Sunderland's players held an impromptu huddle after Sesko's goal on the Old Trafford pitch, and Hume has revealed that the need to improve was laid bare in that discussion.

"We were saying to each other that it’s not good enough, we’ve got to stick together, get into half-time and fix things," he said.

"We knew we started slowly. And we knew we had to stick together. After that we did it."

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The one positive Régis Le Bris took from Sunderland's defeat to Manchester United

While disappointed with the result and the poor performance of his players in the opening half hour, Le Bris said afterwards that he took some comfort from the way they stuck together thereafter. Le Bris also said that it was important to remember that is has been a 'really positive' start to the campaign for the Black Cats on the whole.

"I think it [the season so far] is really positive," he said.

"Even if we struggled today, we reacted. For a young squad like ours after 2-0, many teams can just stop and wait for the last minute with four, five, six, seven goals.

"We reacted well. The start of the season is really positive with 11 points, probably not expected from many people. The dynamic is positive. It's part of the process to lose games but we have to learn from today."

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