I thought we’d need a second goal when Jon Stead came on. We didn’t but we got it anyway. The real bonus, however, is that Duncan Watmore played 3/4 of the game. Pete Sixsmith will tell us how he did in due course. For now here’s his two instant seven-word verdicts on the whole game.
4 December Sunderland 2 (1) Notts County 0 (0) A competent performance and a comfortable win.
…. Always a pleasure to beat the Magpies
1 December Walsall 1 (0) Sunderland 1 (0) *Fifteen minutes of Walsall pressure means replay
Nov 27 Sunderland 4 (3) Barnsley 2 (1) An important win with some shaky moments
Nov 24 Walsall 2 (2) Sunderland 2 (2) Even more heroic than Thermopylae and Agincourt
Nov 17 Sunderland 1 (0) Wycombe Wanderers 1 (0) A fair result after a disappointing performance
Nov 13 Morecambe 0 (0) Sunderland 1 (0) Left it late but the run continues
Nov 11 Port vale 1 (1) Sunderland 2 (2) Negotiated a tricky tie successfully. Southport next?
Nov 3 Plymouth Argyle (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 2* Solid team performance earns another away win*
Oct 27 Sunderland 3 (1) Southend United 0 (0) Three goals and another clean sheet. Great
Oct 23 Doncaster Rovers 0 Sunderland 1 (0) Winning ugly is just fine by me.
Oct 20 Shrewsbury Town 0 (0) Sunderland 2 (0) A comfortable win that just oozed professionalism
Oct 6 Bradford City 1 (0) Sunderland 2 (1) Great win but Power made it difficult
Oct 2 Sunderland 2 (1) Peterborough 2 (0) Good point but spoiled by woeful refereeing
Sept 29 Coventry City (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 1 Fair result that could have been worse
Sept 22 Sunderland 4 (3) Rochdale 1 (0) Fifteen minute purple patch wrapped this up
Sept 15 Burton Albion 2 (2) Sunderland 1 (o) Weaknesses horribly exposed in a deserved defeat
Sept 8 Sunderland 1 (1) Fleetwood Town 1 (1) Huffed and puffed against very difficult opponents
Sept 4 Sunderland 0 (0) [4] Stoke City U21s 0 (0) [2] *Decent workout for young guns and recoverees
Sept 8 Sunderland A (a) Fleetwood Town B (b)
Sept 1 Sunderland 1 (0) Oxford United 1 (1 ) Poor first half, dug in well second
Aug 19 Sunderland 3 (3) Scunthorpe United 0 (0) Iron pummeled as three lusty blows delivered
Aug 16 Carabao Cup: Sunderland (0) 0 Sheffield Wednesday (1) 2 Result disappointing but plenty to enthuse about
Aug 11 Luton Town (0) 1 Sunderland (1) 1 Played well in patches against solid opposition
Aug 4 Sunderland (0) 2 Charlton Athletic (1) 1 A great day for club and academy
July 21 St Mirren (0) 0 Sunderland (2) 6 * Cracking results like this will suit fine
July 17 Grimsby Town (0) Sunderland (1) 1 *Gooch’s header from Maguire’s cross settles matters
July 14 Hartlepool United (1) 1 Sunderland (0) 1 Yet to see anything to inspire confidence
July 10 Darlington (1) 1 Sunderland (0) 0 Embarrassing
I’ve read somewhere that Jack Ross has said that we don’t have designated penalty takers, they sort it on the pitch. I can’t believe we have no preparation for penalties but at the same time I would expect any player worthy of the name to be capable of hitting a target of 192 sq.ft from 12 yards. So it must be down to seniority I suppose. We’ve seen McGeady refuse to let Gooch take one and now Sinclair deny Kimpioka. As long as the ball hits the net I’m not bothered. You have to earn the right to take penalties and being fouled isn’t earning the right (unless you’re playing u-11 league football).
Regarding Sinclair’s effectiveness as a front man. He runs around a lot. Puts a shift in and team results are good so should we complain? We are joint top scorers in the league with 39 goals and 6 in the cup. These goals are spread across 13 different players which would suggest we are creating lots of opportunities across the park or else we’re very efficient with what we do create. None of these are falling to Sinclair and playing with only one front man, be it Maja or Sinclair. do we really want him out on the wing or digging back in deep midfield? Even with 11 men on the pitch we’re playing without a front man, hence going a man down, subbing Maja for an attacking midfielder and coming back strongly recently. A couple of front men we’ve come up against recently, Walsall’s Andy Cook and Barnsley’s Keiffer Moore, with Maja alongside them would change our game completely. But back to Sinclair, he’s OK. No more nor less. Our returning players and youngsters coming through take away any sense of him being a player who is critical to our season.
Wouldn’t disagree with any of that Terry. We have an exciting young crop of players coming through up front for us so all is looking good and Sinclair is doing a job for us right now so no worries. If we were to have longer term aspirations for Sinclair though he would have to significantly up his goals tally for my liking.
I like Sinclair. He has a good attitude, works hard and compared to some other loanees that we’ve had in recent seasons seems to have bought into the club and the manager’s philosophy.
Like many others his effectiveness is in part determined by who is alongside him. He changed the game against Charlton when he came on with Oviedo and pulled the Charlton defence all over the place which allowed the team to make that come back which in a way is a microcosm of the season so far.
Last night it struck me that he is quite one footed and looked to get the ball onto his right foot but when Wyke is fit, when Watmore is fully fit then Jack Ross will be able to ring the changes and Sinclair will I feel still be a valuable member of the squad as long as JR doesn’t try and play him, Wyke, Maja, Gooch and Watmore all at the same time!
Agree on the ref. Decent, though it wasn’t a difficult game to ref as I didn’t see any play acting on either side, unlike most league 1 games.
As for Sinclair, he desperately needed a goal and you could see his confidence lift after he scored it, almost leading to a second. Kimpioka certainly doesn’t need a confidence lift as he is fearless and full of confidence already.
Sadly, the keyboard warriors and also a significant number of those sitting around me last night seem to have decided that Sinclair is going to be their target now that Honeyman is playing well. Last night he got his head down, ran with the ball and shot wide to groans (selfish, headless, etc) but when Watmore did exactly the same there was widespread applause. Sinclair was very poor early on but improved as the game went on, but these numpties had made their mind up by then.
Agree 100% Dave.
Agree about Sinclair needing a goal and his spirit rising once he got it. Kimpi was desperate to register one for the first team as well, just a shame we weren’t two up by that time to allow him to take it.
As for Sinclair, yes goals breed confidence, but I think his problem is he is not in the right position enough (i.e. in the area) don’t know whether its a midfield distribution problem or that the shifts he puts in and eagerness to be involved drag him out of position. As with all strikers confidence is everything.
I’m never quite sure what ” striker ” means these days. I heard Shane Long described as such a few days ago on Talk Sport. I can’t remember when he last scored.
The term ” striker ” , in my memory, started being used in the early 1960’s and was used to describe players like Geaves, Law, Derek Kevan etc. That is players who tended to get on the end of attacking play, and scored most of the goals.
From the little I know of Sinclair, he is more of a target player. Someone who can hold up the ball, and bring others in. Maja, for instance seems to fit the striker definition better, but both are equally valuable in my view, and anyway, I hate to hear of any player being abused. How anyone thinks that this will help a player’s confidence or effectiveness, beats me.
The social media brigade (actually does Salut qualify?) are voicing disapproval at Sinclair for taking the penalty away from Kimpi. Could be viewed as being a bit mean as Kimpi won it but at 1-0 anything can happen and Sinclair scoring put the contest to bed.
Still Sinclair is hardly a prolific goal getter although it was a well taken penalty.
And if it applies the Ref should get a 7, tried to keep the game flowing, allowed some persistent fowlers to get away with it but got the majority of decisions right. I’ve certainly seen significantly worse than him this season.