Sunderland's Championship losing streak continued at St Mary's on Saturday as they were beaten 4-2 by Southampton to extend their run of defeats to six.

Stuart Armstrong and Adam Armstrong gave the hosts a comfortable lead in the first half - aided by Sunderland who made two defensive mistakes in the lead to each Armstrong goal on what threatened to be a long afternoon on the South Coast for travelling supporters. 

Those supporters vented their frustrations at half-time as the two sides left the field before an unlikely resurgence in the second half saw Mike Dodds' side draw level in the game. 

Romaine Mundle opened his Sunderland account after his strike from distance looped over the outstretched arm of Gavin Bazunu to reduce the deficit before Jobe Bellingham curled in an outstanding effort from range to level the scores with 20 minutes remaining. It was two goals out of nothing for Dodds and his side as they looked to end a five-game losing streak but that hope was short-lived as Southampton regained the initiative six minutes later. 

 

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With Sunderland feeling the momentum and pushing for a third goal themselves, they were caught out on the break as Joe Rothwell punished the Black Cats when firing low into the bottom corner.

And Rothwell produced a similar strike moments later as Sunderland again left space down their left for Southampton to exploit as the game was taken away from them within the space of three minutes.

It means Sunderland have now lost six league games in a row for the first time since the beginning of the 2013-14 Premier League campaign and sees them drop to 12th in the Championship table. The gap to the bottom three remains at nine points but that will start to close should Sunderland not be able to rid themselves of their current, abject run of form.

We Are Sunderland's latest morning briefing reflects on Sunderland's defeat at Southampton and some of the key talking points including an injury to Dan Ballard, the average age of Sunderland's squad, the latest striker decision and more.

You can view the video below or via our YouTube channel. We Are Sunderland apologies for the abrupt end of this current briefing due to technical issues.