What were the positives and negatives from Sunderland’s victory over Swansea City?

The Lads rallied from 2-0 down to record a superb comeback win in South Wales on Saturday afternoon. What did our writers make of the game?

Calum Mills says…

Three brilliant goals!

It was a resolute performance with a fighting, ‘never-say-die’ attitude. I’m looking for Dan Neil. His overall performance was excellent, topped by an incredible strike, and he is not a defensive midfielder, in case you didn’t notice. Patrick Roberts persevere. He may have an unpopular opinion, but he refuses to back down. He’s been trying all day to make it happen, but the obvious missing link is an Amad or an Alex Pritchard, who will stand within five yards of him to bounce the ball off.

Calamitous defending for the first goal conceded

Dan Ballard jumps with his man, while Chris Mepham continues to take in his surroundings. He is better than that, and by being more aware of his surroundings, he may avoid that aim. Sloppy. A unwillingness to substitute What’s stopping Régis Le Bris and his coaches from inspiring others? Chris Rigg needs a break, and I’m pretty sure Wilson Isidor was bringing this up in the 90th minute, wondering why people weren’t being replaced. It could wind up being costly in important games. We have a bench of underused, energetic abilities that aren’t being used, and it’s starting to bother me.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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Malc Dugdale explains… What a comeback! After twenty minutes of bad, indifferent football and the occasional dumb error, it appeared like the game was gone, but the way we clawed our way back in and stole that away win shown that the passion of this team has not faded, despite recent performances that have fallen short. Congratulations to all the lads for fighting all the way. That is typical of teams that work hard to succeed. Variety of goals scored We scored three very different goals to go back into the game and eventually grab the lead.

A set piece was finally converted by Dan Ballard and the second from Dan Neil was a ‘goal of the month’ contender, probably alongside the free kick Swansea scored. Despite looking tired, the lads drove forward for the win and Jobe’s run deserved a goal.

We’ve struggled to convert chances recently, but these were very different goals and all from scorers who haven’t been regular contributors, which shows we still have goals in the team even when the strikers hit a dry patch.

Patto’s pause

We shouldn’t have gone 1-0 down as we did and I’m disappointed that Anthony Patterson didn’t come and punch or even collect the high ball which dropped to the Swansea number nine unchallenged.

We’ve seen some changes at the back of late and that can be a factor, but he simply should made it his and twatted it to the half way line.

He made some good saves later to make up for it, and we won, so we’ll forgive him!

A sluggish start from Sunderland

Although it was a great result, we really shouldn’t be starting games as off the pace.

Loose passes, poor pressure out of possession and errors everywhere, but we got the win, so sod it.

Well done lads! That was an epic comeback, but let’s wake up for the first twenty minutes next time, eh?

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