Middlesbrough 1-0 Sunderland – Match Report

The Black Cats’ suffer a disappointing defeat against rival’s Middlesbrough as they lost their main man Ross Stewart in the warm-up.

It was a game with very few chances for both teams, but the Teessiders were by far the better team throughout.

Sunderland had one major chance, and it came in the first 7 minutes as Ellis Simms found Alex Pritchard in acres of space in the Middlesbrough area, but he hit it miles over the bar.

The first and only goal of the game came from Riley McGree.

Ryan Giles put in a nice cross into McGree who took the ball passed Batth and despite the challend from O’Nien, he managed to prod the ball passed Patterson.

Sunderland improved slightly in the second half but it was still nowhere near enough.

Former Sunderland man, Duncan Watmore came on halfway through the second half and started to cause the Black Cats’ more problems.

He was unlucky not to score as he tested the Sunderland ‘keeper twice but unfortunately for him, both shots were quite comfortable for Patterson.

The loss of Ross Stewart seemed to have an alarming effect on the Sunderland team as they failed to create any chances to get back into the game without him.

Player Ratings

Anthony Patterson – 7

Made a few decent saved to keep the score down.

Lynden Gooch – 6

Tried very hard throughout but offered very little going forward.

Luke O’Nien – 6

Could have maybe done more for their goal, but didn’t do much else wrong.

Danny Batth – 6

Similar to O’Nien.

Dennis Cirkin – 6

Unfortunately went off injured, but was having an OK game beforehand.

Jack Clarke – 3

A nightmare performance. His crossing at times was pathetic, and Isiah Jones came out on top on most occasions when they were 1-1.

Corry Evans – 5

Not the best performance by his standard. Some sloppy passes.

Dan Neil – 5

Also very sloppy on the ball at times.

Alex Pritchard – 4

Missed an unbelievable chance early on. Lost the ball far too many times.

Patrick Roberts – 5

Very quiet. Looked dangerous when he did have the ball, but it wasn’t enough.

Ellis Simms – 6

Tried very hard but never had any support with the absence of Stewart.

Amad Diallo – 6

Unable to make much of a difference. Had one chance but decided to try find Simms but he just failed.

Elliot Embleton – 5

Set peices weren’t great apart from the one were he slightly tested the ‘keeper. Was another player who was sloppy at times.

Bailey Wright – 6

Didn’t do much wrong when he came on.

Leon Dajaku – 6

Came on late, didn’t have much time to make a difference.

MoTM – Anthony Patterson.