Three heavy defeats in a row saw pressure suddenly rise on Lee Johnson and his Sunderland team as the winter period of heavy fixtures was about to set in. Sunderland had lost at home to Charlton Athletic
and had followed it up with two very heavy defeats to Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday respectively.
These defeats saw the first signs of trouble ahead for Johnson as despite his side playing an exciting and attractive brand of football, his young players were getting found out against more experienced, physical opposition who could bully his team. After the defeat to Rotherham, Johnson claimed he had learnt a lot about his side and expected a response in the next game at Hillsborough.
The fact that we followed up the Rotherham defeat with a three-nil trimming with Sheffield Wednesday led to huge criticism around the fanbase. Sunderland were shipping too many heavy defeats and a reaction was needed from the team to avoid any toxicity building.
On this day, Ipswich Town arrived on Wearside with their manager Paul Cook under pressure himself, though you wouldn’t have thought it given the way his team played in the first half with Sunderland goalkeeper Thorben Hoffman the reason the game was still 0-0 at the break.
Ipswich’s Bersant Celina had missed three excellent chances to score from close range in the first, on one occasion denied by a stunning Hoffmann double save.
Truthfully, Sunderland looked nervous and devoid of any ideas and a half chance for Ross Stewart from a cross was all they could muster up in the first half.
The second half was an even worse encounter where Ipswich’s standard of performance had dropped whilst Sunderland maintained the fragile nature to theirs.
As the game drifted towards a conclusion it looked as if the two sides would cancel each other out with the game concluding in a stalemate.
But, after Sone Aluko missed a volley from inside the box, we had our defining moment at the other end with Luke O’Nien heading in after heading into the ground and ball bouncing over everyone and into the net with five minutes remaining.
Ipswich were unable to muster a response and McGeady added a second in stoppage time when Aristote Nsiala was adjudged to have handled inside the box, ending Sunderland’s three-match losing streak.
After the game, Johnson was impressed with seeing another side to his Sunderland team labelling it a ‘gritty win’.
“I think it was one of our best performances,”
“It wasn’t fluid, it wasn’t champagne football, it wasn’t like Ajax or Barcelona in their heyday, but we hustled and harried, we had to deal with their quality and everybody stayed concentrated.
“We not only healed as a team today, we also progressed because the young players showed their steel.
“It’s a really good win. The result was the most important thing today without any question, but also the positives of the performance will set us up going forward.
“It was a tough game for both teams.
Johnson was right, this wasn’t one of their most fluid displays but the challenge for the team was whether they could get connect their solid side of their game with their expansive attacking side that Johnson had brought so well to the table.
