A FRUSTRATED Gus Poyet admitted he was fed up after seeing Sunderland miss out on another opportunity to improve their position at the bottom of the Premier League table.

The Black Cats went down 1-0 at home to Aston Villa with Gabby Agbonlahor’s first-half goal proving the difference on a wet and windy New Year’s Day on Wearside.

It was a difficult afternoon for the Sunderland manager, who saw Lee Cattermole gift Villa a opener with a glaring error before linesman Ian Hussin flagged Emanuele Giaccherini’s second half equaliser offside even though replays showed the Italian was level.

Having had the opportunity to climb out the bottom three after good results at Everton and Cardiff City, the Black Cats are now four points behind the Bluebirds in 17th place despite closing the gap to two points over the festive period.

Poyet, who made his frustrations clear in his post-match press conference, admitted he was fed up that his side continue to take one step forward and then two steps back.

“It was a very difficult today for me today,” said Poyet, who had new signing Marcos Alonso watching from the stands. “I need to be careful with what I say because it could bring consequences so I am going to say very little, sorry about that but I think it is best.

“I think you want to see me here every week so I would prefer to keep it short.

“It is difficult to take. Football is unpredictable but when you start well and have chances you have to take them.

“Unfortunately the mistake was against us and after that there were too many nerves and too much tension.

“I don't know why they were nervous and we were not organised enough. People were making individual decisions, but not thinking as a team and that disappoints me. I didn’t expect that. I am fed up. Yes.”

The Black Cats thought they had equalised when Giaccherini latched on to Fletcher’s knockdown to fire past Brad Guzan, but Hussin put his flag up to Poyet’s frustration.

The Uruguayan manager felt the referee’s assistant wasn’t in the right position to make the call against his side, but at the same time Poyet clearly wasn’t happy with his side’s performance.

He said: “It could be a good excuse that the referee was poor. He didn’t let us play when we needed to, he stopped the game a hundred times, he talked to everybody and the only thing missing was him making a phonecall.

“And then the linesman, normally it should be very difficult for a person 50 yards away to see a 5ft6 player behind a 6ft2 defender, incredible. He probably saw the top of his hand and gave him offside. That is the excuse of the day.

“The linesman did something we were not expecting, sometimes these things go for you, today it went against. If you want an excuse, you get one.”

Poyet hauled Cattermole off at half time after his failure to control a Valentin Roberge pass allowed Agbonlahor to go through and round Mannone to score.

Fifteen minutes later the Black Cats midfielder almost repeated his error with the Stadium of Light making their feelings known towards the captain and Poyet admitted he had to take action at half time.

“After the mistake unfortunately for Lee, it was very difficult for him to carry on and very difficult for him and the players to maintain a good relationship with the fans,” Poyet said. “I thought it was better for the whole team and the whole stadium to drop Lee and make sure we were in a better situation.

“It was not because of the way he was playing or the mistake. It was just better for the team.”