Max Power has said that Sunderland will need to 'bounce back quickly' after suffering a setback over the weekend.

The Black Cats fell to a 2-0 defeat against Portsmouth on Saturday as the hosts came away with a comfortable victory.

That result ended their run of nine games without a defeat, but more importantly, it saw them drop out of the play-off positions.

While there's still a long way to go this season, Power has insisted that Sunderland can have no excuses and says that they must face up to the errors that proved so costly at Fratton Park.

As quoted by Chronicle Live, Power said: “I think second half was probably a little bit unrecognisable from what we’ve been like lately.

“The timing of the second goal didn’t help and we didn’t recover from it.

“Portsmouth came out really strong second half and maybe the amount of games and the travelling, not making any excuses, but we looked a little bit tired. We didn’t even win any second balls second half.

“To be fair first half I thought we were top draw other than obviously the goal, We possibly could have had a penalty decision, maybe two. I’ve not seen them back but my gut reaction at the time, I thought at least one of them was.

“Obviously it’s disappointing but there’s still plenty of games to go.”

Power added: "That’s football. There’s a lot of ifs and buts and ultimately today we’ve lost the game on two set pieces which is unlike us really. We’re normally pretty strong. Our defensive record of late has been really good. So maybe today we’ve got to hold our hands up.

“Listen, you lose football matches, but no one’s going to get too down. We’re disappointed, obviously. It’s against a rival - another team who’s pushing to get out to division, so it’s not ideal. But we’ve got Ipswich at home next Saturday and we’ll have to bounce back quickly.”

Can you name every Sunderland player's shirt number this season? 

 

The verdict

A defeat against Portsmouth is far from ideal, but the result must be kept in context.

Sunderland were unlikely to go unbeaten for the rest of the season and so it's hardly a disaster that they dropped points at Fratton Park.

Of course the test will be how they respond to it.

Phil Parkinson's side still have plenty to do and the main focus has to be on getting back to winning ways as soon as possible.

Next up is Ipswich Town and that is not a game that they'll be wanting to lose.