TONY Mowbray says he only swears when emotions are running high. Well he must have come close to cursing on Saturday afternoon.

It was an expletive from his midfielder Dan Neil that handed the initiative to Middlesbrough and, ultimately, turned what had been a very even encounter into a one-sided second half mismatch.

Not that Mowbray was uttering any profanities in Neil's direction. His fury, as you'll have read or heard by now, was aimed at the referee rather than his midfielder.

And as we now move into an international break, Mowbray and Sunderland's players and fans have a frustrating fortnight ahead when the Black Cats would surely much prefer to be able to bounce straight into the next game and move on.

Usually if a side loses so heavily in a game of such importance, an inquest follows, in-depth analysis of what on earth went wrong.

There'll be none of that at Sunderland's training base in the coming days, though.

"We'll put this game in the bin," said Mowbray.

"We won't even look back at it, we'll get straight into the next one."

For all the red card clearly made life extremely difficult for Sunderland, that's not to say the second half becoming a non-event was an inevitability. Mowbray admitted as much afterwards.

Boro did a sterling job of taking full advantage of the dismissal but could - should - Sunderland have made life more difficult for the visitors, even if they were down to 10 men?

"When you play against a football team with a man down, it's really difficult," said Mowbray.

"It's a huge learning curve, I've just told them what I think, not a shout, just an education really. You have to give a little bit more when you're down to 10 men."

The ease with which Boro cut Sunderland open at will in the second half emphasised two clear points. Firstly, the importance of Neil; secondly, why Mowbray was so keen on bringing in another midfield player in the summer.

With Neil back in the dressing room and Pierre Ekwah injured in the stands, Sunderland lacked steel in the middle of the park. As gifted and versatile as Jobe Bellingham is, he's at home dictating rather than destroying. And as much as Adil Aouchiche has shown promising flashes since his arrival, he's not the player Mowbray really needed when he was forced to turn to his bench at half-time.

It was an area Mowbray wanted to strengthen in the summer window and will no doubt be a priority for the head coach in January.

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With that in mind, this stoppage comes at a good time. At least it gives Ekwah a couple of weeks to completely recover from the dead leg that has recently ruled him out. Neil will be suspended at Stoke in a fortnight's time.

The break will help others.  Key figures such as Bradley Dack, Alex Pritchard and Aji Alese will hopefully return.

A prolonged spell on the training pitch will further aid Nazariy Rusyn's efforts to settle in, will help Hemir continue to get to grips with Mowbray's demands, while Eliezer Mayenda is moving closer to being fit and available. Mason Burstow's work ethic can't be questioned but he needs some striker support.

Sunderland face an anxious wait on Niall Huggins. After the defender was forced off on Saturday, Mowbray said it was too early afterwards to know what he'd done and how serious it was. Fingers crossed it's a minor issue. Huggins - who scored that stunner just three days earlier - looked to have put his injury misery behind him and has enjoyed an encouraging start to the season.

He's been one of the many plus points to emerge in the early months of the campaign.

And once the dust settles on Saturday's disappointing defeat, Sunderland won't have to look hard to find positives from the opening quarter of the season. They're fourth on merit, a fine start from a young team still - despite last season's success - finding their feet. There will be blips along the way, and while Neil's red card clearly changed things on Saturday, perhaps what followed was an indication that game-management is still one area for the Black Cats to work on.

Sunderland will draw a line under Saturday and move on, but will no doubt be careful to watch their Ps and Qs next time Gillett is officiating on Wearside.