IN 12 weeks as Sunderland manager, Martin O’Neill has pretty much mastered the art of building momentum. Now he must show he is equally adept at rebuilding battered confidence.

The Black Cats have lost matches before under his inspired management, but Saturday’s at West Bromwich Albion was the first in which they have been comprehensively outplayed.

With 13 players on international duty this week, O’Neill (pictured below) has very little chance to work his magic before the game which proved his team’s biggest mental block under Steve Bruce – the Tyne-Wear derby.

Losing back-to-back games for the first time under O’Neill would be more important than bragging rights.

As he has demonstrated, momentum can be hard to stop.

From the moment David Vaughan’s equaliser hit the Blackburn Rovers net in O’Neill’s opening game, confidence has snowballed.

It became an avalanche until melting away in unseasonable West Midlands sunshine to the point you would not have guessed it was there. It was as if O’Neill had never happened to Sunderland.

Their performance was as flat as some of those under Bruce this term.

There was, though, an important difference. Bruce’s side became hardened to adversity.

The last time the Black Cats went 2-0 down – in October’s reverse fixture – they clawed their way back.

They lost seven times under their previous manager, but never by more than a goal.

When O’Neill’s men stared down the barrel, they had forgotten what to do.

Peter Odemwingie’s fourth-minute header from Youssouf Mulumbu’s cross was the earliest Sunderland had conceded under O’Neill.

It gave West Brom confidence befitting a team who had beaten local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-1 in their last outing and undid all the good work of the visitors’ FA Cup win over Arsenal.

Even O’Neill admitted his team never recovered in the remaining 86 minutes.

Considering Sunderland arrived on such a high, it was remarkable how flat they were. Baggies manager Roy Hodgson revealed beforehand he had been given the chance to sign Craig Gardner at the start of January, only for the offer to be removed once the midfielder started to find his best form.

O’Neill has talked about returning to Gardner’s homesickness at the end of the season. If he asks to leave, Saturday was not a great advert.

Fortunate Fortuné conceded a foul when he dwelt in possession early on, Gardner lost his boot in a challenge with James Morrison minutes later.

It put him in a grumpy mood for the rest of the game. Twice midway through the first half he dragged shots wide, the second time exploding at the lack of movement which forced him to pull the trigger.

Although Lee Cattermole looked assured in possession, few team-mates were on their games.

Simon Mignolet followed a routine save by kicking straight out of play, while James McClean’s boot failed to make contact with Phil Bardsley’s invitingly whipped cross which Gardner had been unable to get his head to.

Michael Turner horribly sliced a cross over his own crossbar and Sebastian Larsson conceded a foul throw.

If that looked harsh, Stéphane Sessègnon was lucky to escape with one in the second half.

So it was no surprise West Brom doubled their lead before half-time. Morrison is starting to fulfil the potential shown at Middlesbrough and when Ben Foster’s kick launched a 40th-minute counter-attack he took advantage.

Jerome Thomas hung up a cross and Morrison arrived ahead of McClean to head in.

Already defeat looked on the cards, but O’Neill refused to accept it.

Having started with 4-1-4-1, the upshot of his lengthy first-half discussion with Steve Walford was to introduce Fraizer Campbell and Nicklas Bendtner and do without a proper left-back.

When Foster caught another Bardsley cross he threw into the gap the full-back had left for Morrison.

Marc-Antoine Fortuné easily turned Turner and, although he failed to return the ball to Morrison, Odemwingie ran on to it to score. Four minutes later, Thomas curled a shot onto the crossbar.

Sunderland had gone too gung-ho too early and Wayne Bridge was soon brought on so McClean could give up emergency left-back duties.

They continued to push for a goal, Cattermole initially leading the fight.

Foster brilliantly saved a Gardner shot swerving so much you wondered if the midfielder had been ball tampering.

Bendtner was a fraction away from a McClean cross, and Campbell wrongly flagged offside as his shot appeared to drop behind the line from the crossbar.

West Brom were still in control, however. Although Fortuné’s shot may have been his second in succession going wide from a tight angle, Turner’s lunging clearance off the line telegraphed Sunderland’s desperation.

An O’Shea backpass put Mignolet in trouble and, although he stretched out a left hand out to Morrison’s shot, the ball was never properly cleared.

When it found Keith Andrews, Sunderland’s humiliation was complete.