Luke O'Nien delivers Sunderland dressing room verdict after Plymouth Argyle loss

Luke O’Nien says Sunderland will learn from their 2-0 defeat against Plymouth - saying the disappointing result wasn’t due to a lack of effort.

The Black Cats fell two goals down in the first half at Home Park, following an excellent strike from Morgan Whittaker and Finn Azaz finish.

“No lack of effort, it’s always there,” said O’Nien after the match. “It’s the basic what we build every game off. We didn’t give ourselves a good enough platform for the second half, although we did create enough chances.

“I felt if one came one or two more would have come as well. We just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net and it was one of them days. Lots to learn from and we will learn our lessons and become a better team.”

Sunderland created multiple opportunities to score in the second half and hit the post on multiple occasions as they tried to get back into the game.

“I think you need to give them credit, they are a very good team,” said O’Nien when asked about Plymouth’s resilience. “We worked hard on the game plan and when they scored two goals the game plan slightly changes. I think they are a very good team.

“I have played against their manager multiple times, I think even in League Two. He is a very good manager who has his team very well organised from back to front but how they came away with a clean sheet I will not know.

“Fair play to them, they were very, very good. I’m going to look forward to playing them at our place where we will look to put in a better performance than we did today.”