Michael Beale's frustration after Sunderland's defeat at Huddersfield

Defeat in West Yorkshire brings an end to Sunderland's three-game unbeaten run under Michael Beale and sees them drop a place in the table. 

And things were made worse for Beale when losing winger Patrick Roberts to an injury late in the game.

This is what Beale had to say on defeat at the John Smith's Stadium 

A tough one to take tonight?

Yeah, you could see they made the game a real physical battle all over the park. We tried to overload it a little bit in the first half and then realised the spaces were so tight so we tried to get at them on the sides. We had some joy across the whole game but we’ve lost away from home to a set play.

We had some incredible chances in the second half and got in some good areas in the first half without looking as big a threat as I would have liked but we’ve conceded away from home to a set play and that’s Middlesbrough and Ipswich and that’s on me, I’m going to need to fix that because it’s hurting us.

What's the latest on Patrick Roberts?

We’ve obviously had a disaster because we’ve lost Paddy for the last ten minutes and that meant we had to play with ten men. It just made it into an even worse night.

It’s his hamstring, and I’m told it’s the same as he did earlier in the season. He missed four or five weeks earlier in the season, and he feels it’s the same.

It’s a really big shame because I thought he was bright when he came on. He came inside and the defender did fantastic to block it, and then he went outside on another one. We looked much stronger when he came on, so he’ll be a big loss.

What’s he played for me? Two-and-a-half games now? And probably, that’s going to be it for a period of time now, so someone has to step up, for sure.

It was a bit of a frantic?

We had to play that way a little bit because we know what the points would mean to us and I felt if we would have got a goal at any moment the whole atmosphere in the stadium would have changed.

If we come away from home and can't find that moment of quality then we must defend well in our own box from set plays. They've scored at 35 minutes and then bang on half-time we've had a set play that's gone right across their goal; where are we in the scramble? Even at the end of the game we had one towards the far post and we don't get a touch on it. In both boxes tonight we've come up short and we end up losing.

Sunderland have struggled against physical teams most of the season, it seems. How do you combat that?

We have to flip a mentality coming away from home. Everyone is going to go for us when we go to their home stadium. It’s a league where everybody is caught up in something. People are chasing the play-offs or promotion, people are fighting for their lives down the other end. If you look at the table it’s two teams at other ends of the table but if you look at the form guide, Huddersfield are not in such a bad space, they scored seven goals coming in so we knew they’d come for us, they went for Southampton at the weekend so we knew they’d be up and at it.

It’s fair to say we probably weren’t doing as well as we’d like in the first half but we improved in the second half. To do that we had to take risks at the back, the risk would have been worth it if we took one of our chances at the end.

It's still very tight in the play-off race?

We just need to play the next game. We don’t start 1-0 up or 1-0 down at Birmingham. We need to reset and we need to recover. Birmingham have had the extra day playing Friday and Tuesday so we need to get back home and recover, have a chat about one or two areas and then come again on Saturday. That’s what the Championship is. It’s relentless and we’ve got a fight in the 14 games left.

The boys had a go tonight, you can see it in their faces. Same with the staff as well. The set play thing we have to overcome as well, we came up against a team tonight who I think are number one for set plays in the league. It was a message coming into the game but it’s not even the way you think you’d get beat on a set play.

When we have our big moments at the end and we’re running hard and get a couple of chances, we have to take them. History is repeating itself. At Middlesbrough we missed big chances and came away with a point. We went away to Ipswich and at 1-1 we missed a big chance and lose. We’re kicking ourselves but we can fix those things. If we come away from home and get outplayed, that’s a bit different. I didn’t think we got outplayed tonight. I think it was a tough game for us and in the big moments we haven’t executed again in both boxes and that’s a big thing for us.

The away form is a growing concern?

I think there’s a difference between getting a point at Middlesbrough and losing tonight in terms of the away form. That [Middlesbrough] was a positive result. We went to Hull as well but it’s right, before I came in we hadn’t won since September away from home. We’ve only won once which is not enough for a team of our aspirations. It puts real pressure on your home form which of late has been decent enough.

We get another opportunity at Birmingham at the weekend. We need to brush this game aside. Teams can get promoted having won a few but certainly have lost a few – every season the Championship is one of those leagues. It’s about mental resilience and stamina and we’re going to need to show it. With a young group it’s important we remain positive. I think we should applaud [Matty] Pearson tonight – he’s kept one of the best players in the league a little bit quiet - and not knock Jack because Jack has been incredible for us.