'We had to have...': Michael Beale on Sunderland's frustrating draw and what went wrong

Michael Beale praised his Sunderland players for their late rally at Rotherham United but admitted that they had fallen short with their first-half display.

The Black Cats conceded some significant chances in a poor first half display, in which they turned 65% possession into just two shots. They fell behind shortly after the interval when Sam Clucas scored an excellent volley. Jack Clarke's deflected effort got Beale's side level and though they ended the game on top, the head coach admitted the overriding emotion was frustration.

"We had to have a real honest conversation at half time because we didn't really execute our game plan in the first half," Beale said.

"We were sloppy and they were compact, they made it difficult for us. Leam has got them moving and they got a really good result at the weekend. At half time we needed to really commit to our game plan and unfortunately we started the second half in the worst possible way, we could have defended better in the build up but it's a fantastic strike. After that I was pleased with our reaction and by the end I felt we'd run out of time. So there is frustration, but it's the third game in seven days and I'm pleased with the response of the players.

"The schedule is a frustration because we'll go and play two games in 14 days soon, after having played four in ten. We ran out of time in the second half but it's our own fault, because we started sloppy.

"Rotherham were right up for it, we didn't win enough duels and when we did we were sloppy. We tried too many 80/20 against passes, I asked us at half time to make fewer errors and build up so we could exploit them down the sides. We did that towards the end. We were too slow to the game."

Beale again started the game without a striker, introducing Mason Burstow at half time in place of Adil Aouchiche. Beale was asked whether he needed to start picking a striker and while he said that was a possibility moving forward, it was about the team as a whole being more incisive. "I think it's one of two things, yep you could put a striker in but if we try to walk it in as a team... I want us to be less fussy and more spiteful in the final third," he said.

"We look like we're going to score an unbelievable team goal but you see there we take a shot and it gets deflected in, that's the kind of thing we've been talking about. We do so much good work but ultimately it's about less goals, but we need to take less touches and be less fussy. There's got to be an end product from our possession. Three shots of target from 70% possession isn't enough."