MATCH REPORT: Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 4

SUNDERLAND suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa in a result that will increase the pressure on head coach Gus Poyet.

Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor both netted braces at the Stadium of Light to give the Villans, who had scored only four goals on the road prior to the game, a third consecutive win under new boss Tim Sherwood.

It was an utterly shambolic display from the home side with the only positive of the afternoon coming at Selhurst Park, where fellow strugglers Queens Park Rangers lost to Crystal Palace.

Sunderland sit four point above the bottom three but their latest display will set alarm bells ringing on Wearside.

Poyet made three changes from the side that drew at Hull City with Steven Fletcher, Patrick van Aanholt and Ricardo Alvarez replacing Danny Graham, Santiago Vergini and Lee Cattermole.

QPR’s defeat to Crystal Palace gave both sides a bit of breathing space ahead of kick-off but the Black Cats came out in a positive mood.

A driving run from Jack Rodwell carved out the hosts’ first opportunity in the fifth minute but Jores Okore made a last ditch tackle to prevent the midfielder following a neat one-two with Patrick van Aanholt.

Sunderland’s good start was short-lived, however, and they found themselves one down at 16 minutes. Leandro Bacuna had time and space on the right to send a low cross to Benteke inside the area and the striker made no mistake sending a low drive past Pantilimon.

A shambolic couple of minutes saw the Black Cats afternoon go from bad to worse when Sherwood’s men doubled their lead two minutes after their first.

John O’Shea failed to read Ciaran Clark’s ball into the channel leaving Gabriel Agbonlahor to nip in and slot the ball past the Sunderland keeper.

Boos rang out from the home crowd and after referee Neil Swarbrick fail to spot a Clark handball in the 34th minute, the atmosphere got worse when Villa made it three-nil three minutes later.

Charles N’Zogbia’s driving run through the middle set up Agbonlahor on the right side of the area and with the Sunderland back four static the forward ghosted across goal and fired in his second of the game.

As the Villa players ran off to celebrate in the corner all eyes were on the Sunderland bench as three supporters had to be led away by stewards after venting their frustrations at the home bench.

With one minute remaining in the first half Villa scored a fourth when Bacuna’s right-wing cross was met by Benteke, who rose above Anthony Reveillere to head home.

Going in at half time four goals down is bad enough, but it could have been more with Scott Sinclair and Fabien Delph both going close for the visitors in between their goals.

The drama didn’t stop after the break either when N’Zogbia’s curling shot was tipped over by Pantilimon, who only had ten players out on the pitch for the restart.

Seb Larsson appeared on the touchline three and a half minutes later in another embarrassing moment for the Black Cats.

A rare chance arrived for Sunderland not long after when substitute Connor Wickham sent a dangerous ball across the box but it was just ahead of the oncoming Jermain Defoe.

With nine minutes left Fletcher hit the post with a shot from a tight angle, but the second half was a non-event overall with Villa happy to play the game at a pace to suit them.

SUNDERLAND (4-1-4-1): Pantilimon; Reveillere, O’Shea, Brown, van Aanholt; Bridcutt; Alvarez (Wickham, 46), Larsson, Rodwell, Fletcher (Graham, 83); Defoe.

Subs: Mannone, Vergini, Coates, Jones, Gomez.

ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): Guzan; Lowton, Okore, Clark (Sanchez, 64), Bacuna; Sinclair, Cleverley, Delph, N’Zogbia (Wiemann, 79); Benteke (Hepburn-Murphy, 83), Agbonlahor.

Subs: Given, Gil, Kinsella, Westwood.