FOUR defeats in five matches have left head coach Lee Johnson asking his players to dig deep to prove they can handle life at Sunderland.

While exiting the FA Cup at the first-round stage might actually turn out to be something of a blessing given the team’s progress in the Carabao Cup and Papa John’s Trophy, the Black Cats still wanted to move into the second round.

Instead Mansfield, who had been without a win away from home all season and sitting 20th in League Two, were able to sneak ahead courtesy of former Hartlepool striker Rhys Oates’ fifth-minute opener and preserve that lead for the rest of the game.

Suddenly, an early FA Cup exit – just like the team endured 12 months ago to the Stags at the Stadium of Light – has inflicted further damage on a squad drained of confidence in recent weeks.

Having won 14 of their first 17 matches, Sunderland’s loss to Mansfield has heightened concerns following the recent defeats to Charlton, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday. Johnson, knowing how young his pool of players is, appreciates how quickly his squad has to learn.

“The million dollar is ‘What has changed?’” said Johnson. “Obviously we have gone from winning to losing.

“Everything is subjective, we show a lot of love to our players. I just felt two or three today were low on confidence and that has the domino effect.”

He added: “Social media and media, for example, how it can affect things. You have to be able to manage it really well.

“As a manager 10-15 years ago you could build confidence more easily, now a comment or two comments can affect players deeply.

“By no means am I saying don’t give us stick. Fans have to be allowed to be fans. Be emotive about anything. Just make sure it is not to the detriment of the bigger performance."

While Mansfield deserved to go into the next round for the way they dealt with playing at the Stadium of Light and defended manfully throughout, Sunderland never got going.

After goalkeeper Lee Burge’s poor kick presented Oates with the opportunity to finish and put the visitors ahead, Sunderland rarely looked like scoring.

There was a header from Nathan Broadhead that was well saved by Nathan Bishop in the closing stages of the first half and both Carl Winchester and Dan Neil hit the woodwork with efforts as full-time neared. Otherwise Mansfield were largely untroubled.

Johnson said: “I picked a team to win the game, of course I did, but now looking at it being in the quarter-final of the League Cup and in the Papa John’s Trophy, my focus is on the league and has to be on the league.

“It is difficult to legislate for a technical error. That has happened too many times in the last few games. That is where the confidence comes from.

“I saw a couple of attitude errors, not tracking runners. For me it was a bit of a freeze, no fluidity to the thinking, the movements. Everything was a struggle in terms of getting across the ground.

“Players thinking we were playing Mansfield and easy, as opposed to Arsenal or QPR a couple of weeks ago. If we were at the Emirates do you think we would play like that? No, you’d have 50 family members watching, a bigger stadium. We have to be better all the time.”