PHIL PARKINSON was determined not to be critical of the players he has inherited after watching Sunderland’s poor run stoop to a new low by crashing out of the Leasing.com Trophy last night.

The Black Cats boss lost for the fourth time since taking over and the manner of the 3-0 defeat to League Two strugglers Scunthorpe United left a number of travelling fans chanting ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’.

Despite naming an experienced first team in a bid to secure the victory that would have claimed qualification from the group stage, Parkinson witnessed Sunderland concede the opener from the spot when Newcastle supporter Lee Novak found the net.

He added his second deep in stoppage-time too after Mo Eisa, who had earned the earlier penalty when Luke O’Nien was red carded, had grabbed Scunthorpe’s second with two minutes remaining.

The manner of the collapse was what frustrated the supporters the most, and arrived on the back of the defeat to Leicester’s Under 21s in the same competition and Saturday’s failure to beat Gillingham in the FA Cup at the Stadium of Light.

“We looked defeated at 1-0 with ten men, but tonight is not the night to be critical of the players,” said Parkinson. “It is for me and the staff to go away, analyse and get a head count and plot a way forward. We need players available for selection and we are down to the bare bones at the moment.”

And Parkinson could understand the fans’ reactions, even though he would have preferred not to have heard it just eight matches into his reign as Sunderland manager.

“It does hurt. You don’t want to hear it, but supporters pay money and they come down and they want to see pride in the team,” said Parkinson.

“We will come through it and stick together. We need players back quickly. We need presence at the top end of the pitch. We need to get the team help.

“The players are low. At 1-0 and down to ten men we were trying to get back in it but to leave ourselves vulnerable like that and concede two late goals puts a poor reflection on the result. Key moments were pivotal, there is always excuses and reasons but equally we needed to be better.”

Despite the obvious frustrations and clear disappointment, Parkinson felt there were reasons for Sunderland’s failure to beat Scunthorpe – questioning the decision to send O’Nien off and an early incident when the Sunderland man went down in the box under a challenge from Junior Brown.

He said: “It was an even game at the start, we should have had a penalty, ridiculous how that was not given.

“We started the brighter of the two, couldn’t find that moment. The sending off changed things, it was a contentious decision, down to ten men, they got the penalty. The two goals late on were disappointing.

“The first was a set play, physically we weren’t the biggest on the pitch and looked vulnerable from set plays. The third we let come in too easy and we conceded another goal which obviously puts a different reflection on the game, which is not good.

“At the moment we are a team who is losing players, lacking physicality at the top of the pitch, things going against us. Joel Lynch has had to come off, Will Grigg had to pull out this morning with sickness.

“Jordan Willis is playing and he shouldn’t be playing, he needs an injection with patella tendon tomorrow, plus the internationals and other injuries we have. We will patch a few up and come out fighting.”

Parkinson revealed that Sunderland are trying to get next Tuesday’s FA Cup replay with Gillingham put back a week.

He said: “The Gillingham game might be put back to the week after because of the internationals. We have asked Lee Burge to play tonight and we will probably get a decision on that tomorrow.”