EPL: Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone offers fans refund 8-0

Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone

Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone is going to ask his team mates to have a whip round to reimburse fans who made the long trip to Southampton for the 8-0 thrashing in the Premier League at the weekend.

The Italian conceded the team had "thrown in the towel" during the humiliating reverse on Saturday at St Mary's, which is a round trip of more than 1,000 kilometres (621.37 miles) from Sunderland's home in the northeast.

"I will talk to the team to see if it is possible to pay for their tickets and their trip," he told reporters.

"We should do it because we didn't put our foot in, we didn't work hard.

"We started the game well but after we conceded we threw in the towel, and I include myself."

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet described the defeat, in which his team made a string of defensive howlers, as his "most embarrassing experience" on a football pitch.

While there was little Mannone could have done about the spectacular Santiago Vergini own goal which opened the scoring, the Italian could have been blamed for at least three, most notably when he cleared the ball straight to Dusan Tadic for the sixth.

"We have to remember how embarrassed we felt and take some anger from this game into the next one and produce a performance," Mannone said.

"We have to do it for ourselves, for the club and for our great fans as well that came all that way."

Sunderland host Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday.

Wigan Athletic's players offered to refund the price of the match ticket to travelling fans when they lost 9-1 to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in 2009.