Sunderland boss David Moyes was encouraged by his team’s performance, despite seeing them slump to a 2-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday.

Two goals in the first half from Potters midfielder Joe Allen was enough to seal a victory for the home side, while the result condemned the Black Cats to a sixth Premier League defeat of the season.

Moyes’ men have yet to win a league match under his stewardship and they are currently four points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table.

The former Manchester United and Everton boss acknowledged that his men are going to have to improve their results sooner rather than later, but he was encouraged by their overall performance at the Bet365 Stadium.

He said: “For me, it was encouraging because the players had been working on things in training to try and get it there, have more of the ball and we wanted to try and get forward more often if we could and I thought we did try to do that but the first goal was poor.”

The 53-year-old was also quick to praise the travelling Sunderland support, who he believes stuck with his side even when they were 2-0 down during the second half.

“The second goal did finish it off and I was really disappointed because we had brought an unbelievable support here who really got right behind the players,” he added.

“I’ve got to praise them for the way they got behind the team throughout the second half because we’re 2-0 down at half-time.”

Sunderland will be hoping to secure their first league win of the season when they take on West Ham at the London Stadium on Saturday.

The Black Cats are available at 4.50 to win the match, while the Hammers are priced at 1.75 and the draw is on offer at 3.60.