Shambolic Sunderland lost their third league game in a row after a 3-0 drubbing from Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night at Hillsborough. Lee Johnson’s side produced a defensive horror show with goals from Theo Corbeanu, Florian Kamberi and Lee Gregory marking another miserable day for the lads in Yorkshire for the second time in four days.
After the heavy loss at Rotherham on Saturday Lee Johnson made three changes to his side for the visit to Sheffield Wednesday. Aiden McGeady was an enforced change through suspension after his red card and he was replaced by Aiden O’Brien. Corry Evans and Lynden Gooch also returned to the starting eleven at the expense of Elliot Embleton and Leon Dajaku with the manager tweaking the formation back to 4-3-3. Nathan Broadhead was named on the bench marking his first involvement in the squad since the end of September.
The home side got the game underway kicking towards Sunderland’s tremendous away following who were in full voice. Sunderland got into a decent position just inside the five-minute mark when Lynden Gooch intercepted a loose ball and played the ball to Luke O’Nien. He fed the ball back to Carl Winchester in a good cross position, but Winchester’s cross was just over the head of Ross Stewart. A minute later Gooch teed up O’Nien on the edge of the box, but his side footed shot went over the bar.
At the other end Sheffield Wednesday had their first effort on goal when Sunderland failed to deal with a long ball from the keeper but Kamberi’s ambitious shot was way off target. The home side then took the lead just after 10 minutes with Sunderland’s defending again leaving a lot to be desired. A ball forwards towards the edge of the box saw Tom Flanagan beat in the air before being nodded to Lee Gregory. Gregory played the ball to his left where Theo Corbeanu was in acres of space in the box after Lynden Gooch was caught ball watching, and Corbeanu clipped a neat shot into the bottom left-hand corner past the diving Hoffman.
After 25 minutes Sunderland’s inability to deal with balls into the box almost caught them out again with Gregory rising highest to a cross from Patterson but it was deflected behind for a corner which we did clear. As on Saturday the lads looked suspect dealing with anything in the air and weak in physical challenges. There was a glimpse of goal a few minutes later when Cirkin did well surging forward and finding O’Brien but his low shot was blocked.
Sunderland did have the ball in the net after 34 minutes when Ross Stewart’s shot bounced off Lynden Gooch and into the path of Dan Neil who buried the ball into the back of the net. However, the linesman had his flag up ruling Gooch offside when Stewart’s struck him although it did look tight. The disallowed goal prompted a little up turn in Sunderland’s performance with a bit more of a sense of urgency with the lads forcing a scramble in the Wednesday six-yard box, but the keeper gathered it.
However, the home side doubled their lead five minutes before the break with Sunderland again caught out with a ball into the box. Sunderland’s fragile defence looked like conceding every time the ball went into the box and the second goal was scored when Corbeanu crossed into the box from the right. Infuriatingly Sunderland failed to deal with it despite having bodies back and Kamberi pounced to force it in from close range.
We did end the first half with a couple of decent efforts on goal first Dan Neil drove forward and stung the palms of the keeper from the edge of the box. Then in first half injury time we forced a corner which was cleared as far as Flanagan who struck a good effort first time which the keeper parried away leaving Sunderland trailing by two at the break.
Neither side made any changes at the break and Sunderland restarted the game kicking towards the 4,000 strong following and we did force an early corner which O’Nien wasted taking quickly. We did force a decent opportunity five minutes into the restart when Ross Stewart drove forward well before finding Cirkin on the left. Cirkin stood a cross up to the back post which O’Brien headed into the path of O’Nien who saw his shot blocked before Cirkin’s rebound was deflected behind for a corner. O’Nien clipped a better cross in than the earlier set piece but the home side again cleared.
Despite an improved showing in the early stages of the second half Sheffield Wednesday added to their lead further through Lee Gregory after more woeful Sunderland defending. A ball into the box this time from the left was played out to Patterson who hacked a shot across goal into the path of Gregory to finish.
Lee Johnson reacted by replacing Dan Neil with Alex Pritchard and five minutes later Lynden Gooch made way for Elliot Embleton. With 15 minutes to go Sunderland were almost caught out trying to play the ball out from the back. Callum Doyle was caught in possession in the box allowing Kamberi a shot from inside the six-yard box, but Hoffman was able to hold it at the near post.
A nice move from Sunderland with ten minutes left saw Evans flick the ball into the path of Winchester. The right back ran into the box and caused a scramble with his cross from the right with the ball just not dropping kindly to a red and white shirt. Lee Johnson made his final change of the evening with Nathan Broadhead replacing Aiden O’Brien.
The game had fizzled out a long time before the four minutes additional time signalled by the officials and Sunderland did fashion a late chance when Pritchard crossed to Stewart, but his header was held by the keeper.
It was another dismal effort from Sunderland with improvements needed all over the pitch.
Final Score: Sheffield Wednesday 3 Sunderland 0 ALS Man of the Match: The 4k away support
