Football
PA Sport 9y

Gus Poyet humiliated as Sunderland suffer heavy defeat at Southampton

Gus Poyet was left bemoaning the "most embarrassing" moment of his football career after his Sunderland side were hammered 8-0 at Southampton.

The Uruguayan saw the Black Cats score two own goals on their way to their biggest ever Premier League defeat as a Graziano Pelle brace, as well as goals from Jack Cork, Dusan Tadic, Victor Wanyama and Sadio Mane, sealed a memorable afternoon for the hosts.

For Southampton, the win saw them move into third place in the table, but Poyet was in sombre mood after witnessing his team's decimation.

"Where do I start? First, it was the most embarrassing [moment] I've had on a football pitch without any doubt," he said. "I feel sorry for the supporters. I thought we were creating something between the team and the supporters -- they made a long trip and they deserved better. What I say in the dressing room stays in there.

"I use the word 'embarrassing' because I'm trying to be respectful. This is not an easy [press] conference this one, I need to be very careful what I say. I'm responsible.

"It's going to be a difficult week. The players who are on the pitch next week are going to do something about it. I don't think I want to watch that again. Sometimes I make clips. I wouldn't have time to make as many clips as I need. Maybe the players will watch it. Maybe it will be good therapy for them to watch themselves."

Sunderland were denied what appeared to be a stonewall penalty when 2-0 down but, other than that, they never looked like penetrating the most watertight defence in English football.

Santiago Vergini and Liam Bridcutt scored the unwitting own goals but it was that of Argentina international Vergini that will live long in the memory.

The defender inexplicably fired past the hapless Vito Mannone from outside of his own box with all of the execution and aplomb of an experienced striker, leaving Poyet baffled.

"Even if you watch that 20 times you don't know how it can happen," he added. "Then we clear the ball and it hits somebody and it's 2-0. Then you're thinking it's not going to be our day.

"And then the penalty, where -- if the ref did his job -- it's a penalty and a red card and maybe 2-1 and then we're talking about a different game. After that, I can't explain what happened. I will let the players explain to you, maybe they will have better words. I don't."

^ Back to Top ^