Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC verdict: The key question for Michael Beale and his side after a crucial win

Phil Smith evaluates Sunderland’s significant victory on a tearful day at the Stadium of Light.

Michael Beale pondered afterwards, out loud, “What kind of team are we going to be?”

Over the span of ninety minutes, he had witnessed his players display two very different faces—not for the first time, nor even this week. They have the potential to be brilliant, lively, annoying, and all too easily suppressed. If there is one thing we can say with certainty about them, it is inconsistent. Not only from week to week, but frequently from half to half as well.

When Beale was questioned later, was this the quintessential instance of that most durable of football clichés, the game of two halves? He answered, “Well, not really; we only participated in one of them.”

This first half unfolded largely like a collective, recurrent nightmare. The kind in which you can see where it’s going and what’s coming, but you can’t shake your way out of it. Continue passing, probing, hitting the wall, and so on. Pass, pass, pass, probe and bang: 1-0 down. In what precise manner was that accomplished? This magnificent old place may occasionally take a little while to awaken, but that’s because the story is so very familiar.

But stir it did, crowd following team. One suspects the hairdryer treatment is no longer much of a thing in 2024 and the era of the head coach, but Beale said that some ‘honest truths’ were shared in the dressing room. Sunderland were out early for the second half, ready and waiting to put right what had just gone wrong.

S'land 3 - 1 Plymouth - Match Report & Highlights

What transpired was the most colourful, agile, and thrilling thirty minutes of football this young team had played—possibly even since that amazing demolition of Southampton early in September—not only under Beale’s tenure. The kind of spell that makes you forgive them for anything, the kind that makes the growing pains you occasionally experience worthwhile. Although Ian Foster, the manager of Plymouth Argyle, was the first to praise the Black Cats for their “wonderful” performance, he was not overly satisfied with the quality of officiating on display.

This spell and adrenaline boost was probably just what everyone needed after an often contentious start to the year. A reminder of this young team’s fearlessness and fluidity, as well as how promising the future may often appear. From Pierre Ekwah’s shrewd and opportunistic goal to tie the game, every single goal was one to celebrate. Jack Clarke was let free by Trai Hume’s daring crossfield pass, and the winger did everything after that. Perhaps the third goal best summed up how Sunderland rediscovered the verve, a wonderful goal that started with one of Plymouth’s rare forays forward. Morgan Whittaker has been one of the best players in the Championship this season, one of the few equals to his opposite number Clarke, and there were little flashes of that quality here – the through ball that released Ryan Hardie for the opener the most obvious. So there was danger when he drove into the heart of Sunderland’s half, stopped only by a fine recovery run and challenge from Dan Neil. Neil shifted it quickly to Jobe Bellingham, who took flight and just kept going until the ball bounced off the inside of the post and in. If you were to be hyper critical of Plymouth then you might suggest that it would have been an idea for someone, anyone, to try and tackle him but no matter – it was a fine individual strike. After Beale and his crew made a small adjustment at halftime to better handle Darko Gyabi and Adam Forshaw, Bellingham and Neil were completely dominant in the second half. They had seized opportunities in the first half and frequently prevailed, but there was now plenty of room for Sunderland’s inexperienced players to push into.

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Phil Smith’s Sunderland AFC verdict: The key question for Michael Beale and his side after a crucial win

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