When the news came out that Dan Ballard wasn’t fit enough to make the starting eleven for Leeds’ visit, a lot of concerns arose for many, but in the end we did a decent job in defence.
There were extended
periods — especially in the second half — where it was very much “backs against the wall”, and the lads who had to cover for both the AFCON losses and the Ballard-sized gap did very well.
It’s a real shame that we’ve potentially lost the big Northern Irish international for four weeks or so, but apart from losing Dominic Calvert-Lewin for a high-quality run in between the centre backs that met a very good cross, the lads who stepped up at short notice did very well.
It was clear that Dennis Cirkin tired late on and with more quality options on the bench, maybe he would’ve been replaced, but we defended steadfastly at times (that save off the line from Trai Hume was massive), and we deserved the point we earned in the end.
It was mentioned on Haway The Podcast that Simon Adingra has taken his omission from the Ivory Coast squad quite hard and that he’s really stepped up his training to grab this chance to shine — and how he shone with that finish just before the half-hour mark!
If he wants to grab the attention of his national coach, he did exactly the right thing by scoring his first Premier League goal for the Lads, and what a belter it was.
The ball from Granit Xhaka was an absolute peach but the touch and curled effort just inside the post was a thing of beauty. Adingra was one of the best players on the pitch and after his unconvincing showing at Brighton, he really took his game to the Leeds defence — especially in the first period.
He was massively unlucky in the dying moments of the first half when an excellent cross to Brian Brobbey at the back post only managed to rattle the corner of post and bar. If that had led to an assist and goal, he would’ve deserved it.
If this is the start of Adingra really showing what he can do, we have a lot to be grateful for as he didn’t head to Africa for the competition he’s missing out on.
Elsewhere, I was a little surprised to see Chris Rigg start and while he had a decent enough game and made some good contributions at times, I do think what Eliezer Mayenda offered when he came on was a level above.
Rigg did OK and his tackle to win the ball back about twenty minutes in was what every Sunderland fan wants to see. That said, Mayenda came on, offered so much more in terms of running at opponents with the ball and creating stress and worry for them, and I think Eli has done himself the world of good in terms of getting a start while the AFCON team members are away.
The run he made on the seventy-fifth minute was a glimpse of what we’ve missed and something we don’t really get from Rigg.
It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out as Rigg is clearly doing something to impress the coach, but when we have less of the physicality from the AFCON lads on the park, making up for that with Mayenda rather than Rigg makes a lot of sense to me.
Up front, I was really happy with the hold-up play from Brian Brobbey and on another day, he could’ve had a goal or two.
His physicality and strength with his back to goal created a load of issues, and when he and Adingra both committed fully to tackles and put Joe Rodon off the park, the grit of the big number nine had an even bigger impact — and quite legally so.
I thought there was a half-decent shout for a very advanced free kick or penalty on one or two occasions — including not long before he hit the bar with a header — but that wasn’t to be. I’m not sure if the referee wanted to give anything to the home side but with the graft and muscle that Brobbey put in, it showed me why he’s currently preferred to Wilson Isidor.
However, given the lack of goals from both Brobbey and Isidor, I do think we may dip into the transfer market in January.
If Mayenda isn’t seen as an attacking option and the two lads aren’t scoring often enough, we could do with another player up top to make sure we hit thirty five points as soon as possible in 2026, and kick on from there.
We could easily have lost that game and with a handful of players away on international duty and star players like Dan Ballard unavailable at short notice, to keep our unbeaten home record into 2026 and not let in any of the barrage of attempts which Leeds created in the second half represents a point gained rather than two lost.
Leeds did a good job and much like the fixtures in the Championship, there was very little to separate the two teams — nor the tactics the two coaches used to counteract each other.
There were times when we were far too wasteful with the ball and times when we should’ve shot rather than overplayed the build up — such as the chance for Lutsharel Geertruida inside the first twenty minutes.
There were also times when we stood off too much (including in the buildup to the Leeds goal) and many points when we had to dig in and do all we could not to lose, but we got a point — which we deserved — and we move on to the next one.
If we can continue to build points with great goals like that and last-ditch defending, despite all the challenges thrown at us, we’ll be in the mix for the top ten or even top six to eight come the end of the season.
