"After the game, the lads were asking what the other results were and we'd rather be in a position where we don't have to do that.
"Ideally, you just want to concentrate on yourselves, not be relying on what other teams do. We came back into the dressing room on Saturday thinking, how did we lose that?
"It's so disappointing because we knew we should have won judging by the chances we had during the game. In the first half we kept Sunderland at bay most of the time without creating too much ourselves.
"But then a few minutes before half-time we conceded a really sloppy goal from our point of view, which should never have happened. It was too easy for Etuhu to score and that was disappointing.
"In the second half we really went at Sunderland, and throughout the half we created chance after chance. I still can't believe how we didn't score.
"My shot hit the post after Michael Brown had an effort kicked off the line, then Emile headed against the bar. Their keeper made some good saves, I thought he played very well.
"Generally, we had a very good second half but then Daryl Murphy scored an absolute wonder goal. With goals like that, you just have to hold your hands up and say it was a great strike.
"This was a big game because Sunderland are near us in the table, and it was one we felt we were capable of winning. That didn't happen, which is very disappointing.
"We've got another game like that in a couple of weeks when Derby play at our place, we have to be really up for it. We need three points out of that one.
"Maybe this two-week break between games has come at the right time. Okay, we have a long time to dwell on the Sunderland result rather than getting it out of our systems with another game. But we can use the time to work on the training ground, put a few things right, and hopefully a couple of the lads can get over their injuries.
"Ryan Taylor and Mario Melchiot both had to come off on Saturday, but now they've got some time to recover."
Meanwhile, Julius Aghahowa is likely to be leaving the club in the summer after manager Steve Bruce ran out of patience with the £25,000-a-week striker.
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