Chris Coleman has once again laid into his Sunderland AFC side, stating that his side's position won't change if they keeping making the "same mistakes," as the prospect of League One grew ever more real with the 2-0 defeat to Preston North End. 

Nothing new to tell you 

Things have been looking grim for some time for The Black Cats but Coleman stated pre-match that he was optimistic about the team's chances against The Lilywhites, and there was some optimism in the first-half with Joel Asoro, Bryan Oviedo and Adam Matthews all going close in the first 45 minutes. 

It was the same old story in the second period for The Black Cats as Alex Neil's side took the lead just five minutes after the restart before they were reduced to ten men with Jake Clarke-Salters for a ridiculous double booking. 

Their fate was sealed with Callum Robinson adding North End's second, the defeat doesn't remove them from the bottom of the table but will currently need six points outright from the last eight games and Coleman was critical of his side making the "same mistakes" post-match. 

"There's nothing new I can tell you. Same mistakes, same theme," Coleman told his post-match press conference. "I keep saying the same things every week. The first 45 minutes is okay, but after that, we give away a ridiculous goal, the kind of goal that we don't get from opposition. We work on set-plays but we don't mark and you get punished." 

"Six times since I've been here we've had men sent off maybe that's a team that's struggling and pushed to the limit," the coach admitted to the gathered press. "It's a common theme. I'm saying the same things as I was two weeks ago, we're conceding silly goals."

"We're only one win away from changing it round, but you'd write us off because we keep making mistakes and we're not rising to the challenge," the Welshman stated. "We change formation and personnel but we don't seem to be hitting the mark." 

"We're never going to get away from where we are if we play like that. You have to keep focus at this level, if not you'll get punished,"
Coleman added. "You don't get away with it. We've tried a lot of different things. We're up against it here before we've kicked a ball, it's been like that for a couple of years and that's self-induced but the fans clapped us off at halftime."

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Can't say anything without the evidence 

It has been chaos both on and off the pitch on Wearside throughout the campaign, but they were rocked on Saturday before a ball was even kicked with Darron Gibson being involved in a car accident. 

The Irishman is still around three weeks away from a return to action following a groin injury was believed to be involved in a crash near the training ground around lunchtime, Gibson has already been in hot water this season for going on a drunken tirade against the team near the beginning of the campaign and Coleman stated it would be "difficult" to comment on the incident not knowing the full details. 

"I was told just before the game that there has been an incident," he said on the Gibson situation. "I don't know exactly. I have heard one or two rumours but until I speak with everybody here to find out exactly what has happened."

"I know there is an incident but I don't know exactly what has happened," Coleman concluded.

"Until I find out exactly what has happened, this morning I believe, it is difficult for me to say anything until I get all the evidence."

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.