If there are benefits to a bout of flu then one is undoubtedly the ease in which guilt can be put to one side as you take up daytime residency on the settee.

As fate, or germs from elsewhere, would have it, I fell victim in a timely manner for Thursday's transfer deadline day. And so, accompanied by a Lemsip, I settled down for proceedings, the comings and goings of the football world in the hours before player trading concludes until the summer. 

Like many a reader, there is the keen anticipation of a presenter informing us that 'Next, we go to the North East' followed by the hope that they begin at the Academy of Light. The ideal outcome is the emerging bright lights of a salubrious car which pierce the evening skies, possibly suggesting an agent exporting his client to put pen to paper on a contract. 

Then, as we are informed of who exactly the passenger is, there is an almighty echo, sourced from Ryhope to Redhouse, that hollers repeatedly whilst fading: 'Who? I've never heard of him.' All of this without focus on the area of immediate concern - perhaps Alex Pritchard misunderstood what was meant by the club needing a striker.

We are somehow expected to believe certain signings have greater grandiosity, simply because we witness the new recruit arrive at their new, Monday-to-Friday at least, place of work. As it turned out the January recruitment drive did not yield the hoped for arrivals, notably an established centre-forward. Time will inform us if the squad, as is for the remainder of the season, will be good enough to make the play-offs. 

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A share of the spoils from the Riverside, this perhaps unsurprising as the season has been characterised by both North East sides as nearly men.

The game itself was a microcosm of the season to date - flashes of form, a threat here and there, but an inability to prove clinical at times. Even the goals had flaws in part; a rehearsed Middlesbrough set piece coming unstuck but landing fortuitously at the feet of Marcus Forss. For Sunderland, an opportunistic effort from Nazariy Rusyn which should have been easily countered by Tom Glover, the visibly despondent Middlesbrough keeper.

 

READ MORE: 'Indifferent' Sunderland stalemate demonstrates play-off shortages for both

 

The latter stages of the game may well allow for a view that Sunderland deserved something. The time before, especially the second half, was underwhelming but as contemptuous as I am about many a football cliché there are solid grounds for the idea that a goal can change so much.

For all Glover might have needed to count sheep late Sunday night, the attempt was on target and in doing so Rusyn, at the very least, presents a problem. He injected enthusiasm and drive to the away side and whilst the goal tally is still such a key indicator, he can feel content with his efforts and the reward that came. 

Two games without loss. A beginning perhaps….