Roy Keane suffered the worst beating of his professional career as Everton boss David Moyes hailed the "best performance of my time at the club".

Moyes had witnessed a 7-1 rout inflicted on Keane's Sunderland, which pushes the Wearsiders into the bottom three and leaves Everton unbeaten in seven.

Keane was predictably honest with his assessment of the worst defeat under his management at the Stadium of Light, and a defeat that he conceded he had never suffered anything like as a player.

Keane said: "I have never been on the end of anything like that in my career, but I am surprised to be asked that question because it is not about me or my personal feelings.

"I hope it is the first and last time, but I am more concerned about the team, the supporters and the whole club. We need to react in a positive way next weekend.

"I hope it does not damage team morale, but only time will tell. We have good lads and this is hard to take, but in terms of the character of the people in the dressing room we have time now to react in the right way next weekend."

He added: "That was very hard to take, losing any game like that conceding seven is tough. I cannot dress it up, that was tough for us all.

"When you come to grounds like Everton, as good as they are, the very disappointing aspect was the type of goals we gave away.

"If teams open you up and score great goals you hold your hands up, but for us to give away four or five like that then it is always going to be a long day for you.

"Of course you always hope you can get back into the game, you get a goal before the break and then even at 3-1 you are still hoping.

"If Chops (Michael Chopra) had scored even at 4-1 with a great chance there is always a chance to get back into the game.

"Credit to Everton, they took full advantage of our short-comings I suppose. It is not right just to be critical of the back four, it is all about the team.

"Even at 5-1 we were still throwing men forward, maybe that was a little naive, that wasn't down to the back four. You have to take your medicine as a whole team, not just the back line.

"We have got decent lads in our dressing room, nobody even thinks about rolling over, it was a very harsh scoreline and we did concede seven but we did have some periods when we did well.

"The concern was that every time Everton came forward they looked like scoring. That is not a great ingredient to have."