DAVID MOYES has paid tribute to patient supporters for understanding the situation Sunderland are in as he battles away in a bid to turn things around at the Stadium of Light.

Fans directed the focus on the club’s owner Ellis Short once again on Saturday when Stoke City raced into a three-goal lead inside the opening 34 minutes.

Even though Jermain Defoe grabbed his 12th goal of the season before the break, the atrocious nature of the Black Cats’ opening period put them on their way to another defeat in the fight to stay up.

A significant number of the 42,000-plus crowd left the Stadium of Light early but the Sunderland manager did not come under much fire from fans, appreciative that he only has ‘limited funds’ available to improve the squad.

Moyes said: “Managers always take the brunt of it. I think the supporters know what the situation is. I appreciate their support greatly.

“I do think the supporters here have been through it that many times they've seen it before and when I came I wanted to change that. I don't want the supporters to go through this every year.

“Of course you'll lose games, of course you're not going to win every game at home and there will be times when you make mistakes and don't play well but it's too much, too much. We want to try and change that.”

It was the 13th reversal of Moyes’ opening 20 league games and further highlighted the need for reinforcements before the transfer window closes at the end of the month. 

He didn’t make a single substitution, suggesting afterwards that he did not think he had the options on an inexperienced bench to improve the performance. 

Sunderland are half-way through this window and are yet to bolster numbers within the squad, even if Moyes is working away and hopes to have at least one new face on board by the end of the week. 

There have been approaches to clubs but the fact they are not allowed any more Premier League loans – they already have two - has complicated the situation further, with Short also on the look-out for investment from overseas or to sell the club.

After being asked if Short will be aware of the fans’ ‘are you watching’ chant, Moyes said: “Ellis does watch the games but we've known the situation anyway. We want to get players back from injury and if we can make some additions to the squad, I hope we can. 

“But we want to try to get additions who can help us stay up first and foremost and also players who we think can hopefully be at the club for a while.”

Despite failing to win since December 17, Sunderland remain just a point shy of safety because of Crystal Palace’s ongoing problems. Eagles boss Sam Allardyce, though, is expected to strengthen before the end of the month and that should boost their chances of a turnaround.

One of the main problems facing Moyes, however, is that the lack of alternatives to the players in his starting line-up means he can’t mix things up even if certain players are making mistakes; with a number of errors committed against Stoke.

He said: “There were people I'd like to have changed in the game but I didn't think what we had (on the bench) would have necessarily made it any better. I thought our best options, certainly in the middle to forward areas, were on the pitch.

“I didn't think we looked so bad that we were going to lose goals, it just came off individual mistakes. We made one and before you knew it we'd made a second.”

He added: “I didn’t think we had players on the bench capable of scoring more than Jermain Defoe, Fabio Borini and Adnan Januzaj. We don’t have anything to change it round. I felt our best attacking players were already on the pitch.

“You have to add to the squad. Numbers are down and we know that. We will get more players back from injury and the Africa Cup of Nations, bit this period we are pretty short.”

Sunderland have three more games to play before the transfer window closes, including tomorrow night’s FA Cup replay at Burnley. After the trip to Turf Moor he hopes to have a couple of players back, with striker Victor Anichebe one of the big misses closing in on a much-needed return.

Anichebe has not played since pulling his hamstring at Burnley on New Year’s Eve, which was another occasion when Sunderland showed why many have them down as relegation certainties. The fact Saturday’s defeat was at home made things worse.

“I felt our home form had started to go for us and we'd started to pick up some good wins,” said Moyes, whose side had lost just once on Wearside since the end of October. “At times it was difficult to judge. You could judge we lost three goals but we made errors which cost us.

“This was down to three individual mistakes. It’s difficult because it was three mistakes and that never allowed us to get going. When you go 3-0 down it is hard, but I have got to say that I thought Seb Larsson started the resilience by winning a few tackles, the team started to follow Seb a bit. 

“We got a goal back and we made one or two chances second half where we could have got it back, but the damage was done by the mistakes. I would hope we wouldn’t make mistakes that often. We made three and were punished severely.”