Quick Kicks: Thoughts & Reaction To Hull City 3-0 Sunderland

What The Gaffer Said

I'm not going to go too deep into this, we weren't good enough, we didn't create enough and we didn't adapt to the game or the circumstances.

The only way to get something from a game when things aren't going your way is to defend well and we did not do that - especially for their first goal.

The goal changed the game; we didn't come to hold the game we wanted to win it.

I brought players on who are regularly in the team for us; the fans were very happy to see Fabio and Johnno come on and then two minutes later we conceded a goal.

Sometimes the decisions you make work and sometimes they don't. They [Borini and Johnson] are not responsible for the goal, but the game changed at that point.

We've been talking about cup games for weeks and then maybe a return to Wembley; it's over now. No more talking or analysis, it's all about the Barclays Premier League.

Next week is where our battle starts. We need to go out and create more; we're at home so we need to take the game to Crystal Palace.

We need to concentrate on the league, sometimes I don't like to make out that a game is like a cup final but I think it's the only way we can approach our remaining games.

We cannot give any more points away, we can't complain any more, we need to go out and be man enough to win our games.

Blame... Poyet?

This is perhaps the first game where blame may well be laid at the door of Gus Poyet since his arrival at the club. It could be argued that there were too many changes, and a new formation was never going to really work for us when combined with those changes.

There was more than enough money on the pitch. Enough experience and international caliber among the players selected, however this was an experiment which completely failed.

Under Pressure

The thing about the selection and the abject nature of the performance put in was woeful. With Poyet clearly having one or even both eyes on next weekend's game against Crystal Palace, Yesterday counts for nothing at all and looks even more shameful if we don't take anything but full points from our next home game.

Palace aren't a terrible team either. Tony Pulis has them well drilled and more than capable of turning us over at home. Poyet is playing a dangerous game.

Not only that but this demoralizing defeat may well have more impact than any further fixture congestion could.

I Be Fletch

What on earth has happened to Steven Fletcher? Yesterday was a simply awful performance. Perhaps more unforgivable than his miss in the Capital One Cup Final.

The Scottish International seemed to merely run about like he'd never even seen a football before rather than the £10m+ striker he's supposed to be. A simply awful performance, and yet further headache for us and Gus over where goals are going to come from.

Cattermole Vs Hull

There seems to be something about Hull that they can play on Cattermole's reputation as a 'bad-boy' very well to referees and seemed to spend a large part of the game trying to ensure Cattermole didn't finish the game on the pitch.

I think it affected him. It wouldn't have played a direct part in his two horrendous gaffes which gifted goals to Hull, but it may have made him think twice and entered his head-space or subconscious sufficiently to agitate him away from being able to have a superb game like we know he can, and did as recently as a week ago.