Sunderland captain John O'Shea has criticised his side for an "unacceptable" performance after they fell to a 4-1 defeat at Burnley this afternoon.

The Black Cats could have climbed out of the bottom three for the first time since August with a win over the Clarets but were torn apart on the day by Sean Dyche's men, with Jermain Defoe's 71st-minute strike proving a mere consolation.

"Unacceptable today, not good enough," O'Shea told reporters after the game. "Away from home you have to be resilient together, but the goals we conceded were not acceptable and the players have to take responsibility.

"It's nowhere near good enough, and we will have to rectify this quickly. There is no excuse for what went on, and it's something we will have to look at collectively and individually and dust ourselves down very quickly.

"The dressing room is not a good place at the minute but we know we can quickly turn this around. We have to have the attitude that we fight together. We want to give ourselves a chance and make teams earn their goals, not gift them like we did today. Burnley took their chances well but we helped them a lot along the way."

Next up for Sunderland is a tough home encounter with title chasers Liverpool on Monday afternoon.