A STUNNED Gus Poyet will subject Sunderland’s humiliated players to a re-run of the 8-0 defeat at Southampton at St Mary’s which left him feeling the most embarrassed he has ever felt in football.

Three goals in the first half from Santiago Vergini (a calamitous own goal), Graziano Pelle and Jack Cork paved the way for a second half mauling from the Saints.

After Liam Bridcutt could only help Pelle’s half saved shot over the line for the fourth, Southampton scored a further four goals through Pelle, Dusan Tadic, Vincent Wanyama and Saido Mane.

That inflicted a result which equalled the worst defeat in the club’s history, leaving Sunderland sitting just a point above third from bottom Newcastle in the Premier League.

And Poyet said: “It's the most embarrassing time I've had on a football pitch. I cannot watch it again.

"I learned a lot about the players - the bad side as some gave up and I know who they are for the future. I feel very sorry for the fans.

"Maybe the players will watch it. Maybe it will be good therapy for them to watch themselves. It's going to be a difficult week. The players who are on the pitch next week are going to do something about it.”

Sunderland now face Arsenal next Saturday and Poyet is determined to see a reaction.

The Saints, however, keep marching on. Ronald Koeman, who was September’s manager of the month, has lifted Southampton up to third and has challenged his players to keep going.

He said: “I'm very pleased and still a little bit in shock because that's 8-0. It's not a normal result and I was surprised after 20 minutes about the score. Two-nil up and we didn't start the game well. Sunderland were the dominant team and we had problems.

“We were lucky with the first one, the own goal, and that gave us a little bit more confidence, maybe organisation in the team and we woke up after that. We were maybe a little bit lucky at 2-0. I'd have to see it back but to know if it was a penalty or not. It's difficult to see from the bench.

“I know Poyet very well from Spain. We played a lot of times against each other. I said, 'unlucky, you should be disappointed because you didn't deserve this score'. They played well in the beginning of the game. I know the game is 90 minutes. My feeling was to the other manager because losing 8-0 is a big result against your team and we spoke about that. The rest is private.

“The first 20 minutes it was very flat but that's football. Sometimes you're surprised how a game is changing. If you had asked me after 15 minutes if it would be an easy win my answer would be, 'No, no, for sure not.' But in the end it was 8-0. That's football, sometimes difficult to understand.”