Defeat by 10-man Brighton ‘a wake-up call’

0Wilson Isidor and Juan Angulo looking dejected at full-time of Sunderland's loss to BrightonFormer Sunderland defender Gary Bennett says the Black Cats' performance in Saturday's 2-0 home loss to Brighton was "laboured".

Despite playing against 10 men for over half an hour after going 1-0 down, Regis le Bris' side failed to create any clear-cut chances in the absence of injured striker Brian Brobbey.

"Brighton were excellent," Bennett told BBC Radio Newcastle post-match. "It is a wake-up call. Sunderland have got to look at themselves in regards to what went wrong in this game.

"Mistakes were punished again. The quality of balls going into the box was poor. The creativity was poor.

"There were too many players off their game – when you have three or four players not at it, you're not going to win. Were Sunderland a threat? No.

"People will be looking at Wilson Isidor as a striker. Did he do enough? Was he much of a threat? Did he get the service?

"Do we need something else up front? We're not going to get that so we need to find a different way of scoring goals or being a threat.

"Overall, the quality wasn't there. The performance was laboured. We were sloppy in our passing, the decision making was poor and the defending was poor."

Listen to the full chat below or on BBC Sounds here