Hull City boss Phil Brown had no excuses after his team's 4-1 humbling by Sunderland.

Sunderland were second best in the first half after veteran Nick Barmby cancelled out Steed Malbranque's superb opener but they took firm charge in the final 13 minutes.

Kieran Richardson's shot was deflected in off Kamil Zayatte and Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse made the sure of the win after Sam Ricketts was sent off for two bookable offences.

Brown said: "There's massive disappointment that we didn't bring our capabilities to the table.

"We have performed well on a number of occasions but that was probably one of our worst performances.

"It's a poor day at the office in terms of the scoreline. It's a result I couldn't see coming, I didn't think Sunderland were going to cause us that kind of a problem in the second half.

"What that cutting edge was, why we didn't bring it to the table I don't know.

"Maybe we were thinking of the 30 points, getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe we forgot how good Sunderland could be."

Brown was unhappy with the sending off of Ricketts, for fouls on Malbranque and Phil Bardsley.

He added: "It's a ridiculous decision. The lad's got the ball. I've looked at it from two angles.

"The lad [Bardsley] has made a meal of it. Sam Ricketts has caught the ball cleanly. But that's life in the Premier League."