Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has again blamed his defence after letting Everton score two early goals at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

The Black Cats went down 2-0, just five days after being punished 7-2 by Chelsea, and Bruce rued the defensive mistakes that cost his team another match.

"I seem to be like a long-playing record at the minute but it is too easy the number of goals we give away," said Bruce.

"They didn't have to do much for the goals today. A cross into our box and we haven't picked Cahill up.

"I'm not going to make any excuses. Two kicks up the pitch have cost us and we haven't defended it anywhere near the way we should do.

"That has been our Achilles heel of late. We just haven't - or can't - defend properly.

"The first half an hour was nowhere near the standard of what we need to be in the Premier League.

"We have to be a bit more resilient than that. We have to show better attitude than what we showed."