Full-time: Southampton 8 Sunderland 0

WHEN Andre Marriner, the match referee, blew his whistle for the final time, Sunderland’s torture was finally over. Humiliated, embarrassed and disgraced – and the players knew it.

Eight goals without reply left the shell-shocked Black Cats nursing a defeat to equal the heaviest since the club’s formation in 1879 and every one of those players could take a share of the blame.

Gus Poyet, himself culpable with a few tactical decisions which never came off, had spent the majority of the second half sat slumped in his dug-out wishing the nightmare was over as three first half goals were followed by a further five after the break.

This was not what he was expecting after witnessing Sunderland finally claim a first Premier League win of the season from their last outing against Stoke City. The shambles on the south coast was exactly what arrived, and he could do nothing to prevent his “most embarrassing moment in football”.

Poyet emerged to stand at the top of his technical area for the final few minutes of the game, arms folded in front of him with anger and frustration written all over his face. He then watched his players trudge over to more than 2,000 travelling fans to, quite rightly, apologise for the showing.

Vito Mannone, the goalkeeper to have conceded the goals, was the last of the players off the pitch and it was at that moment when a sense of perspective was suddenly placed on the situation.

Many of the 2,600 away fans inside St Mary’s had already left, but the majority remained and there was still huge applause for Mannone as he stood in front of them making gestures as if he was saying sorry.

There was no over-reaction from the fans, despite knowing Sunderland had dropped to within a point of the relegation zone after winninng just one of their opening eight games in the league this season. This was a complete one-off; the sort of result which rarely happens.

“We lost 8-0 but we didn’t lose eight games 1-0,” said Mannone, while admitting that the performance was not good enough and that the players should try to reimburse the travelling fans for ticket and travel expenses.

And it is that attitude which Poyet must try to ensure his players hang on to ahead of this weekend’s visit of Arsenal. After a bright start at Southampton, Sunderland were dreadful and suffered the biggest of collapses after Santiago Vergini’s incredible 12th minute own goal was followed by further first half goals from Graziano Pelle and Jack Cork.

“We started very well and I thought we surprised Southampton a little bit, we were on the front foot,” said Poyet. “Then the first goal was from another planet. The second was a little unlucky; then the penalty (appeal) – oh my God. When that happened I thought it was not going to be our day but not as bad as this. It was worse. It hurts because I hate losing 1-0. Imagine eight.”

Poyet, rightly, felt Sunderland should have had a penalty when Steven Fletcher, who should have actually scored first, was wiped out in the area by Fraser Forster after the Scotland striker had chipped wide following a good through pass from Lee Cattermole.

Southampton immediately went down the other end and went three up when Mannone failed to prevent a pretty tame effort from Cork from nestling inside his left-hand post after Dusan Tadic’s cross.

Cork was afforded far too much space and arrived after Will Buckley was at fault for giving away possession deep in the Sunderland half in the build up to Pelle’s goal. Throw in Vergini’s ridiculous own goal and it was hard to imagine Sunderland could get any worse after the break. But they did.

Poyet said: “I don't use excuses. I hate excuses. When you are on the pitch it's not like in golf, where you play on your own. It's a team thing. We need to do things together. When you are on the pitch you need to react together, to defend together, to have pace. At 4-0 or 5-0 down it's not easy but there is no place to hide.

“I will let the players explain to you, maybe they will have better words. I don't.”

One tactical blunder was Poyet’s decision to put deep-lying midfielder Liam Bridcutt on at right-back, taking Wes Brown out of the back four.

In the 63rd minute Bridcutt got himself in a right mess on the line as he tried to stop Pelle’s half saved shot from crossing the line and instead he helped it in. That arrived shortly after Adam Johnson and Jack Rodwell had been introduced – but the goals just kept flowing.

Tadic, a £10.5m summer signing from Twente to replace Adam Lallana, was the key tormentor throughout and he teed up Pelle for his second six minutes later when the Italian striker left Vergini trailing.

The Serbian winger got his name on the scoresheet when he curled in a lovely finish from 25 yards when Mannone gifted him possession 12 minutes from time. He then teed up Vincent Wanyama seconds later before rolling in to the path of Saido Mane four minutes from the end to complete the scoring.

“Everybody needs to look at themselves and ask if they did right or wrong,” said Poyet. “Then, maybe, you can start looking at somebody else.

“There are things you can explain but for me it was impossible to explain the second half. I cannot. I cannot explain this. For me, it is not my team ... it is not what I was expecting. I don't know what words to say.”