David Moyes says fatigue cost Sunderland victory over Southampton
Saturday 27 August 2016 20:01, UK
Sunderland manager David Moyes believes his side were unable to close out the game against Southampton due to tiredness and a lack of squad depth.
The Black Cats took the lead on 80 minutes courtesy of a Jermain Defoe penalty, after the England international was brought down by Saints captain Jose Fonte.
But Southampton equalised five minutes later through Jay Rodriguez's strike to earn a 1-1 draw at St Mary's, and Moyes bemoaned a run of three matches in six days as a reason why his side could not hold on for their first Premier League win of the season.
"It was really tough in the opening period, we never really got to grips with Southampton," Moyes told Sky Sports.
"They started well, maybe [because] we've nearly ended up playing all our players in the midweek game and they didn't have a game. That showed in the early part in the game and in the end part.
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"We're having difficult days and difficult weeks getting players on the pitch.
"Considering we've played near enough the same players as on Sunday and midweek we've done remarkable to play the three games and get a point.
"We're just finding it tough last ten minutes of the games to get players in the conditioning and maybe haven't quite got enough to make the difference off the bench."
Moyes handed a debut to right-back to Javier Manquillo against Claude Puel's side, his sixth summer signing after bringing in Donald Love, Adnan Januzaj, Paddy McNair, Steven Pienaar and Papy Djilobodji.
But he is not confident of bringing in more players before the deadline.
"I felt confident yesterday, I don't feel quite so confident today," he added. "We will try to make some additions because we definitely need it."