'Nowhere near acceptable' - Mike Dodds blasts Sunderland first half showing in Swansea defeat

Sunderland angered interim boss Mike Dodds with a horrendous performance in defeat to Swansea.

Sunderland boss Mike Dodds was left fuming at his team's first half performance against Swansea, describing it as 'nowhere near acceptable.'

The Black Cats lost 2-1 to the Swans, which was their third defeat in a row. All of the damage was done in the first half though, with it looking a complete tactical mess. 

A second half rally did follow, but a Luke O'Nien goal proved to be nothing but a consolation. 

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For Dodds, who was starting his third interim spell in charge, it just wasn't remotely acceptable and he has vowed to get to the bottom of it. 

"I know that that is nowhere near the level," Dodds told safc.com. "I know that that is nowhere near acceptable. 

"The players know that and as a collective we've got to take that one and we'll make sure we're better come Saturday.

The second half was definitely better from Sunderland, but at the same time Dodds was almost reluctant to talk about that. 

Instead, he just wants to hold an inquest into what on earth went wrong in that first 45 minutes. 

"The focus is going to be on that first half because you can't, regardless of whoever you play, you can't let teams have a 2 -0 head start, especially coming to our backyard. 

"That's not acceptable, regardless of who we're playing. So that's the bit I'm really, really frustrated with because when you do give yourself a mountain to climb it's really, really difficult. 

"Obviously, there'll be some positives for the second half and there'll be some things that we're happy with.

"But ultimately, we can't perform the way we performed in the first half."

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