JUST IN; Talking Points: Sunderland’s slump continues at Southampton.

Things are looking bleak at the Stadium of Light after a sixth defeat in a row. Andrew Smithson looks at the main talking points from Saturday’s game at St Mary’s

A surreal build up

The Marine Parade fire close to St Mary’s Stadium, which broke out earlier in the week, thankfully appeared not to have caused any serious injuries.

Hopefully there aren’t any concerns in terms of job losses and credit must go to the emergency services for tackling what appears to have been a complex blaze, but from a football point of view, the situation didn’t look like doing Sunderland any favours.

Struggling with injuries and other absences, not to mention a bad run of results, the last thing the players needed after a long journey was for their promotion-chasing hosts to be given any more advantages.

However, with the Saints’ Wednesday night fixture against Preston North End postponed for safety reasons, it was clear that Russell Martin’s team had been well rested, as they came out flying in the first half

Sunderland give the Saints a helping hand

After their strong start, the Lads made things even easier for Southampton with a series of costly lapses and rank bad defending.

The opposition, who hardly need any assistance to score, were offered up goals on a plate, with their avoidable opener particularly frustrating as it was virtually identical to Leicester City’s goal on Tuesday night.

In terms of numbers conceded, the statistics aren’t too bad for Sunderland but the nature of the goals being given away is shocking and Dan Ballard potentially joining the injury list is another major concern.

Familiar failings repeated

The two matches against Leicester this season followed a similar pattern, with the Foxes scoring at roughly the same stage in both outings before being given a bit of a scare in the second half.

A repeat of our performance against Southampton from earlier in the campaign was never on the cards, but it went down a similar route to midweek in that we were lucky not to go in at half time even further behind, and although we raised our level in the second half, we couldn’t sustain it.

We seem to be stuck in a horrible rut and making the same mistakes all the time, and something drastic is needed to break the cycle.

Southampton v Sunderland - Sky Bet Championship - St Mary’s Stadium

high press brings rewards

If the players are to face QPR with any sort of confidence, they should try and take some comfort in the fact that for a spell in the second half, they did very well to apply pressure on the ball in the final third.

It brought about the first goal for Romaine Mundle and for a while after that, we looked a different proposition. Jobe’s strike should give him a boost, and having finally scored more than once away from home for the first time since September, the team showed they’re capable in bursts.

It was galling to throw a point away so easily having fought back, but it’s always worth remembering that when they click, this side can still be a threat.

A break on the horizon

Saturday’s game against QPR is going to be massive, but then we’ve got a break ahead of the Easter programme.

Ideally, we need to go into that on the back of a decent result and will then have to knuckle down in training to sort a few things out.

There are many individuals who’ve lost their way and need to rediscover their form, and a permanent solution up top is urgently required. Strikers are brought in from the cold only to be phased back out without a proper run.

I don’t think anybody knows our strongest eleven right now and the club needs to take a step back, clear some heads and refocus soon as possible.

Some encouragement on the bench

Make no mistake, this was a poor performance but it’s vital that the fans, players and staff try and keep the mood up in the coming days.

However, two lads that should be feeling high right now are Thomas Lavery and Harrison Jones, both of whom have been in excellent form and deserved their spots on the bench.

Although I sometimes worry about bringing young lads into it when things are going badly, I wish them plenty of luck in their careers and I hope they’ve been able to bring a bit of fresh enthusiasm to the squad.