WILL BUCKLEY has called for Sunderland to get over Saturday’s humiliating 8-0 defeat to Southampton quickly, but insists the team did not give up at St Mary’s.

The Black Cats equalled their worst ever defeat against Ronald Koeman’s men, a result which left them sitting one point above the Premier League’s bottom three.

Santiago Vergini’s calamitous first-half own goal set the tone for an embarrassing afternoon with the Saints allowed to run riot.

Graziano Pelle and Jack Cork added a second and third before half-time, but the floodgates opened as they added another five in a remarkable second half collapse from the Black Cats.

Gus Poyet’s team were accused of throwing the towel in once the Saints scored a fourth, and goalkeeper Vito Mannone admitted as much, but Buckley, who arrived from Brighton in the summer, insists that was not the case.

“For us who started, we dug ourselves into a hole really,” the winger said. “The first two goals were poor mistakes from us and it cost us.

“From then on, we capitulated and it's not good enough.

The first ten minutes we started well and were well in the game, but at this level mistakes cost you.

“I don't agree that we gave up. But everything went wrong and we came up against a team in form. They took over the game in the end.

“We came into the game confident that we could get a result and for the first ten minutes, it looked like we could do that.

“After that, we made errors and got punished and I suppose our heads went down.

“I don't think we went stopping, but everything went wrong. It was individual mistakes and every mistake they punished us.”

Buckley admits is it crucial the Black Cats bounce back from the defeat sooner rather than later with Arsenal next up at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

More than 2,500 supporters made the long trek to the St Mary's Stadium to witness what Poyet described as his most embarrassing moment in football and Buckley insists it is down to the players to make it up to them. Mannone has called on supporters to be refunded and Sunderland were last night quiet on the issue.

Buckley said: “We need to get over it fast. Nobody is over it yet, but we're on to Arsenal next week and it doesn't get any easier.

“We need to pick ourselves up and make sure our performance is 100 times better than it was at Southampton.

“There were a lot of fans still there at the end. If it was other people, I don't think they'd have been there.

“It's credit to them and hopefully they can stay behind us and we can put it right next week.

“We need to sort it. This has to be a one-off definitely. I've never experienced anything like that professionally.

“It's a horrible feeling, especially for how many fans we brought down. It's gutting for us and we let ourselves down. We let the manager down and all the staff who have shown good faith in us.

“We need to make sure we put that right next week.”

With the score at 2-0, Sunderland were denied a penalty when Steven Fletcher was tripped by Fraser Forster, but Buckley refused to use the decision as an excuse for what happened next.

“The penalty incident is no excuse when you get beat like that,” the 24-year-old said.

“Maybe if we'd got beat 2-0, you could say it was a big decision, but that would be cowardice if we blamed it on that.

“Those are the kind of results you see in Sunday League, so we have to make sure that doesn't happen again.”