Sunderland suffered their second defeat in a row, returning from the international break with a poor performance at Stoke.
The Lads had two weeks to reflect on what was a controversial yet gruelling defeat to Middlesbrough. The game saw Sunderland ship four goals, and Dan Neil got sent off for simply questioning a poor decision.
That said, Mowbray’s men were looking to bounce back with a win against Stoke City at the Bet 365 stadium. However, there was a few familiar faces stood in Sunderland’s way.
Alex Neil's Stoke City have had another underwhelming start to the Championship campaign, despite having a massive squad overhaul in the summer. One of the players they brought in was SAFC academy graduate Lynden Gooch. The once-dubbed “Californian Messi” was well liked on Wearside, but many fans (including me) believed that it was the right time to let him go.
Tony Mowbray decided to line up without a striker and Pierre Ekwah returned to the starting 11. Plus, Bradley Dack had returned to the bench.
Starting 11: Anthony Patterson, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien (C), Niall Huggins, Trai Hume, Pierre Ekwah, Jobe, Patrick Roberts, Alex Pritchard, Jack Clarke, Abdoullah Ba.
Alex Pritchard kicked things off, and the lads passed the ball around for a few minutes with little pressure. Despite this, Ryan Mmaee got away with a blatant hand ball and put Stoke 1-0 up. I was speechless at the thought that yet another refereeing error would prove to be our downfall.
But not long after that, Jobe pressed well and won back possession. His strike was barely saved by Travers, and Jack Clarke put away the rebound. The Lads were back level after 10 minutes.
The game then became a bit sloppy, and Stoke were hoofing it long. I can’t say I didn’t expect that. Sunderland then won a handful of free kicks, but nothing really came off them. Daniel Johnson got booked for Stoke and Niall Huggins got booked for us, after going into the back of Vidigal.
It became clear that this game was a physical (and mental) battle. That said, Sunderland could have kept the ball a lot better because Stoke were pushing. After another spell of fouls, we grew into the game and maintained some possession.
A mess up at the back from Stoke led to Abdoullah Ba missing an absolute sitter, latching onto a loose ball but only hitting the side netting. If he had put that away it would have been the perfect way to end the half.
Overall the first half was scrappy, neither side set the world alight. Jobe put in a good shift and Clarke added another goal to his tally. Improvement was needed in the second half.
Stoke kicked things back off, and immediately scored from a corner. Luke McNally got the goal, but it was poor defending from Sunderland. Couldn’t have started off the second half any worse.
Just like last time, we started to get forward once we were behind. But the game remained scrappy, and Mowbray needed to make some changes. Ben Pearson was then booked for a nasty tackle on O’Nien.
We looked so off the pace, and we were even playing ourselves into trouble. The tackles continued and Jack Clarke entered the book after a collision with Ki-Jana Hoever. Finally, some changes were made. Nazariy Rusyn, Mason Burstow, and Bradley Dack came on for
Abdoullah Ba, Alex Pritchard, and Patrick Roberts.
Sunderland came close to getting level, when Dan Ballard's header hit the post from Dack's free kick. It became obvious that Stoke were trying to grind out the result. The referee should have booked a few of their players for petty fouls.
Adil Aouchiche came on for Pierre Ekwah. At this point we just needed to score. The midfielder came close to bagging his first goal, after his header went over the bar.
Lynden Gooch was then subbed on for Stoke. He received a warm welcome from the Sunderland fans. Hemir was then subbed on for Jobe not long after. The Lads then came close from a corner, but no one was there to finish the chance.
Jack Clarke then had an effort saved by Mark Travers as he took on a shot from outside of the box. we finished the game strong, but we couldn’t find the net. There was a last minute penalty shout, but of course the referee gave a goal kick.
The game ended 2-1 and it was a disappointing display from Sunderland. If you want to win promotion you need to be winning games like this, or at the very least not losing them. It’s just so deflating.
ALS Man of The Match – Jack Clarke: No one really stood out but Clarke scored the goal and looked the most dangerous.
