Sunderland were dominated by a Crewe side in good form, but managed to claw back a draw from the jaws of defeat. Two moments of individual brilliance from Jones and Maguire were enough to pick up one point from nothing.
Lee Burge (6/10): Blameless for the goals and made a few decent saves to keep the score down. Made an error which was luckily out of play, and Crewe didn’t capitalise anyway.
Conor McLaughlin (5/10): Too slow, beaten easily and often by Charlie Kirk. Wasn’t his usual reliable self which seemed to spread through the team.
Dion Sanderson (5/10): Cleared one chance of the line, but that came from his own mistake. This was the first game where Sanderson’s age was exposed, looking immature and lost at times.
Luke O’Nien (5/10): Probably the defender who did the least wrong, he clearly isn’t a centre half and we need Bailey Wright back to keep the defence together.
Callum McFadzean (3/10): McFadzean can’t defend as we know and didn’t offer anything in attack. Made one bizarre decision to throw the ball across his own box, and we were lucky not to concede.
Max Power (5/10): Too slow in midfield, failing to add the energy and intensity needed to control the game.
Josh Scowen (4/10): Worryingly anonymous on his return to the side. Couldn’t protect the defence at all and we were overran time and time again. You don’t see the importance of Leadbitter until he comes out of the team.
Lynden Gooch (6/10): Tested the goalkeeper with a couple of long range efforts. Our only attacking threat in a game where we were extremely toothless up front.
Aiden O’Brien (5/10): Tried to bring other players into the game, but nothing really came off for O’Brien.
Charlie Wyke (5/10): Starved of any sort of service, but wasteful with the scraps he was given.
Aiden McGeady (5/10): Barely got on the ball and struggled to influence the game in his usual manner.
Subs:
Jordan Jones (8/10): Totally changed the game by adding a bit of pace to a lacklustre Sunderland attack. Draws fouls in good areas which is a useful tool to have. Finished a good second half with a sublime finish that has to earn him a start in the next match.
Chris Maguire (8/10): Created a threat from set pieces. Put several brilliant balls into the box, one of which O’Nien should have buried. Grabs the headlines today with a wonderful shot to equalise late on.
Jack Diamond (5/10): Direct and quick, without having a lot of end product. Typical Jack Diamond performance.
Grant Leadbitter (N/A): Only played a minute before coming back off with what looked like a bad injury.
Carl Winchester (6/10): Probably wasn’t expecting to come on so soon after a quadruple substitute. Did a decent job of sitting in front of the defence and could have won it at the death, but his header was off target.
