Sunderland beat Burnley to maintain winning start

Despite opening with two wins under Parker, there has been a lot of transfer activity at Turf Moor in the last few days with Sander Berge, Anass Zaroury and Johann Berg Gudmundsson all departing.

Republic of Ireland defender Dara O’Shea could be next out of the door as he was left out of the squad, despite Parker having to fill the substitutes bench with two goalkeepers and three youngsters yet to play for the first team.

And they struggled to find anywhere near the fluency that had seen them score nine goals in beating Luton Town and Cardiff City in their first two games.

Sunderland had made one change from their thumping win over Sheffield Wednesday six days previously with winger Jack Clarke, on the verge of joining Premier League newcomers Ipswich Town, missing.

His replacement, Mundle, almost set up an opener within five minutes only for Chris Rigg to drag it wide.

But the 21-year-old broke the deadlock himself after 26 minutes, burying a shot past James Trafford after he cut back on to his favoured right foot.

The Clarets had been second best and did not manage an attempt on goal until first-half injury time when Benin forward Andreas Hountondji headed wide.

They had more possession after the break but struggled to turn that into real chances – even after Neil was shown a red card.

After being booked towards the end of the first half, his second caution came for a late challenge on Clarets substitute Zeki Amdouni.

Sunderland will look to keep up their winning start when they travel to Portsmouth next Saturday, while Burnley must regroup for the east Lancashire derby at home to Blackburn Rovers on the same day in a lunchtime kick-off.