Sunderland boss Michael Beale admits they struggled to compete against Newcastle on Saturday.

Newcastle were comfortable 3-0 winners at their FA Cup opponents.

"It was a tough afternoon," said Beale.

"In the first half, for the most part, I thought we defended OK, but in possession we weren't tidy enough and we didn't show enough quality to throw any punches at Newcastle. We went in at half time, we spoke about being bold, we made a couple of changes to get people higher up the pitch and bring the back four higher, but then we had the worst possible start to the second half - that's clear for everyone to see.

"After that, I thought we actually started to get into some interesting areas - Pritch hit the bar, and the goalkeeper made a fantastic save down to his right. If we'd scored in that moment I think the fans would have done rest for us because they were fantastic in their backing of the team today.

"But the two goals we conceded in the second half ... because the third goal was really poor on our part as well. Let's be honest, there was a gap between the two teams when we arrived at the stadium today, and we tried to close that gap over the 90 minutes and we weren't able to do that.

"This is a young team and they have to be honest with themselves - as do the staff and coaches - about today because then I think we will improve. The big thing for us is being honest and not hiding away from the fact there is a gap."