'It hurts...' - Chris Mepham delivers honest verdict after Sunderland's late loss to Stoke City

Chris Mepham has delivered his verdict as Sunderland lost a late goal against Stoke City to lose in the Championship on Sunday afternoon.

Both sides had chances to score in the first and second half, with goalkeepers Anthony Patterson and Viktor Johansson producing some tremendous saves throughout the contest. Eliezer Mayenda spurned Sunderland’s best chance of the afternoon as the Spaniard headed wide from close range. The Black Cats also hit the post twice during a tight game at the Bet365 Stadium.

However, it was Tom Cannon who broke the deadlock in the 92nd minute after the Leicester City loanee striker forced a mistake out of defender Luke O’Nien, then beating Mepham to slam home the winning goal for Stoke City.

“Extremely tough,” Mepham responded when asked about the late Stoke City goal. “It's probably the worst feeling in football, conceding a late goal, which obviously costs you a result. It's a really tough one to take, considering I felt like in the game we created more than enough chances to win the game.

“Another game at Sadler's Height, we're 2-3 up. As we've seen this season, the longer teams stay in the game, the momentum can turn. We experienced that in the second half, and in the end, they're against the one that plays to score a goal. We have to learn from it, but as always, there are positives in the game.”

After a solid defensive start to the season under Régis Le Bris, Sunderland have failed to keep a clean sheet since early November and now have conceded goals in each of their last seven matches in the Championship over a bus festive period.

“I think naturally the Championship is relentless,” Mepham added when asked about Sunderland’s lack of clean sheets in recent games. “There are so many games that eventually there's going to come a time where you don't look as defensively secure. I think it's something that we take pride in. Me and Luke up there today, we pride ourselves on clean sheets.

“It hurts us when we can't do that, especially when it ends up costing the team. It's something that we'll look to work towards, but I think it's important on the other end to be more clinical. If a team does get a late goal like today, the game's already out of sight. It's something we need to do better at and get back to winning ways.

“I think, if we can be honest, I probably feel like we could be higher. There's been quite a few games now. Millwall away, the Blackburn game, this game today. That's five points right there where suddenly that puts you right up with first and second. I think every team is going to have games where they look back and think they could have got an extra two points or an extra point there. But yes, for sure, there's a real resilience.

“For a young squad, we've come a long way already. The fact that we're still right in and amongst the back end of probably not a great run shows that we're in a really good place. Hopefully, when the fine-tuning starts to click, we can start to get the results that we deserve.”