SUNDERLAND manager Chris Coleman was in no mood to make excuses for another defensive horror show that has increased the chances of League One football.

The Black Cats were defeated 2-0 by play-off chasing Preston at the Stadium of Light, where the majority of supporters had already left when the final whistle was blown and those who had stayed around booed the players off the pitch.

Preston scored two goals in 13 second half minutes to put the Lilywhites in command courtesy of Sean Maguire’s opener five minutes in and then Callum Robinson added the second. Both were free headers at the back post.

Sunderland remain five points adrift of safety with eight games remaining and Coleman was obviously not a satisfied figure. They are now without Jake Clarke-Salter for two games after collecting his second red card, after just returning from suspension.

Coleman said: "There's nothing new I can tell you. Same mistakes same theme. I keep saying the same things every weeks.

"First 45 minutes were OK, but after that we give away a ridiculous goal, the kind of goal that we don't get from opposition. We work on set plays but we don't mark and you get punished.

"Six times since I've been here we've had men sent off maybe that's a team that's struggling and pushed to the limit. It's a common theme. I'm saying the same things as I was two weeks ago, we're conceding silly goals.

"We're only one win away from changing it round, but you'd write us off because we keep making mistakes and we're not rising to the challenge. We change formation and personnel but we don't seem to be hitting the mark.

“The best thing for us is this two week break, in terms of the pressure being off next weekend. We wanted to go into the break on a positive note on the back of a result but it's the opposite of that.

"We're never going to get away from where we are if we play like that. You have to keep focus at this level, if not you'll get punished. You don't get away with it.

“We've tried a lot of different things. We're up against it here before we've kicked a ball, it's been like that for a couple of years and that's self-induced but the fans clapped us off at half time.

"How many times have I sat here saying the same thing? If that's how it's going to be then we're going to have to take our medicine. You must be sick of me saying ‘it's only five points’. We've lost again in a poor manner.

“It's mindset, simple as that, mindset. It's what you do all week. We've got to start looking at different preparation turning on its head completely.”

He added: "We were trying to get Jake off as he looked a yard short but seconds before he's due to come off he gets sent off. We tried to get him off and he gets sent off. Psychologically that's huge, already a goal down.”

Preston boss Alex Neil was clearly more satisfied after watching his team close the gap to Middlesbrough in sixth to two points.

He said: "We're mixing it with some big teams at the top we're in a fantastic position in good form. We played better last week against Fulham and lost and we've moved on considerably since the start of the season. The aim now is to try to achieve something.

"I'm very pleased, our main aim was to come and try to win the game. The only frustration is that it could and should have been a bigger winning margin. Both sets of players deserve credit because the conditions were so testing but we played very well.

"It's hard for me to comment on Sunderland I don't know the ins and outs of what goes on behind closed doors, it's a big stadium and a big club and it's a shame the position they're in right now. Everyone wants the big clubs to show what they can do and Chris is working really hard to change things round here.

"I'd seen Chris Coleman’s comments before the game about us being a long ball team, and I found that quite amusing to be honest."