Sunderland earned their biggest three points of the season so far on the first day of the New Year. After Patterson saved a penalty that resulted from a rather harsh decision, Mayenda scored a lovely goal right before the away side equalised. Isidor then netted the winner just three minutes later with an even nicer goal to get us back in the fight for automatic promotion.
ANTHONY PATTERSON: 9/10
Saved a penalty, made another couple of great saves and I think he commanded his box better than he has in the last few weeks tonight. His kicking wasn’t too accurate and he daudled on one occasion in the first half but an overall fantastic shift from out number one.
TRAI HUME: 8.5/10
He did really well tonight and was particularly good going forward, there aren’t too many things to pick out as negatives from his performance. When we were under a lot of pressure he remained calm and collected.
CHRIS MEPHAM: 8/10
It felt like there was no way their attack was going to get past him for a lot of tonight, in fact he only lost one duel all night. The only minor thing to be pointed out was that he made a couple of dodgy clearances in the second half, but that’s very picky.
LUKE O’NIEN: 5/10
It’s not been a good few days for O’Nien to be totally honest. He gave the penalty away, although it was a harsh decision and referees are nowhere near consistent enough with shirt pulls in the box, and he also scored an own goal. He was just ok for the rest of the game, however he looked a bit shellshocked at times due to his earlier errors.
AJI ALESE: 7.5/10
A good game from him, made plenty of clearances and put a lot of effort in when defending to get back and prevent a cross (mainly in the first half).
PATRICK ROBERTS: 7/10
I think he should have laid the ball off for somebody when he cut inside and had a shot for his only effort of the match. Roberts definitely had a great workrate in the second half to help out with defending, something he hasn’t always been good at this season.
DAN NEIL: 8.5/10
Mostly did well to command the midfield and did a lot both going forward and defensively. There were more than a few times where he came away with the ball from some difficult positions.
JOBE BELLINGHAM: 8.5/10
He was also really effective tonight and gave their midfield some bother throughout the whole 90 minutes. Maybe could have done slightly better with his second half strike that blazed over the bar.
ADIL AOUCHICHE: 6/10
Aouchiche only had one shot throughout the match and he was prone to errors when he got the ball. Kept getting into good positions but then he didn’t produce much after he did.
ELIEZER MAYENDA: 9.5/10
His best performance since we played the other Sheffield club in the Championship at home. He took his goal really well, a very similar situation to the one he missed against Blackburn Rovers and he also got the assist for Isidor’s goal. Mayenda also drew numerous fouls, including one at the end which relieved a lot of pressure. I think he laid the ball off to the wrong side of the pitch at one point after we had scored our second but that’s a very minor error.
WILSON ISIDOR: 8/10
What a wonderfully taken goal from him, he seems to be getting back into the form he had when he first started playing for us. He was definitely playing with a knock in the second half after stretching for the ball and perhaps that contributed to a few occasions when he knocked the ball forwards and then couldn’t outpace the defender to get onto it. Also had a lovely effort from a difficult angle around 10 minutes in.
SUBS:
LEO HJELDE: N/A
Came on to help us see out the game and did well, he wasn’t involved long enough for a rating though.
NAZARIY RUSYN: N/A
Not sure he did anything with his very limited amount of time.
