Sunderland branded 'shocking' and 'disgraceful' following huge Bolton loss

The Black Cats' promotion hopes took a blow with the crushing defeat at Bolton.

Dion Charles opened the scoring for the hosts in the 19th minute and Oladapo Afolayan doubled the advantage three minutes before half-time.

Afolayan turned provider for Charles to make it 3-0 in the 51st minute, Kieran Lee (59) made it 4-0, before Danny Batth's 85th-minute own goal and Declan John's 88th-minute effort capped a grim afternoon for Lee Johnson's team.

It means Sunderland's woeful away record has continued.

They have also been beaten 5-1 at Rotherham, 4-0 at Portsmouth, 3-0 at Sheffield Wednesday and 6-0 at Bolton.

The match ended with barely any fans left in the away end, and those who remained tore the players apart at the full-time whistle.

And Sunderland legend Micky Gray, who spent 12 years at the club from 1992, blasted his former side's abject showing at Bolton.

He told talkSPORT: "It's an absolute shocker, what a disgraceful performance from Sunderland Football club today, it was an absolute demolition.

"I've got to laugh at the own goal from Danny Bath, it was probably the best finish out of all of Bolton's goals. An outstanding finish with the diving header, but it's not in the right goal. It's just ludicrous, it really is.

"I'd love to be in this dressing room at full-time, Lee Johnson must be going absolutely crazy.

"But he has to take some of the blame. He's brought in signings in January but he didn't start them at the beginning of this game. He's brought them on but they've not really had the chance to be into the game to be honest.

"This has been an awful performance and, I have to say, this is one of the reasons why I don't think Sunderland will finish in the top-two spots, because whenever they get beat, they get thumped.

"There were 5000 away fans who travelled down to this game today expecting a good performance, but they certainly haven't had that. There must be 800 left of them, everybody has left this stadium.

"Bolton were first class. 6-0 from a side that started today 15th in League One against a side chasing down the top spot - what a disgraceful performance from Sunderland.

"Talking about what Lee Johnson will say in the dressing room at full-time, it might be the last time he's there.

"The Sunderland fans, what was left of them, they were all waiting at the front of the stand behind the goal. The players went across to applaud the supporters to thank them for coming, but they just waved the players away. They were raging with them, they were fuming. It was absolutely embarrassing.

"I do not know where Lee Johnson goes from here and I don't know where his Sunderland players go from here.

"Promotion? You're having a laugh!"