SEEING a goalless draw with Bristol City as a positive sums up how low the bar has been set in recent months at the Stadium of Light.
Of course, it wouldn’t take much to improve on the previous outing, a 5-1 home defeat against Blackburn Rovers. But it was a definite response from Sunderland on Saturday, especially in the first half.
If it was the crossbar challenge and not a regular football match, we’d have won it hands down – striking the woodwork no less than three times as both sides grappled with the wind which led to a few chaotic moments inside Bristol City’s penalty area.
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Completing the relatively short walk from the car to the stadium at a 45-degree angle set against the almost typhoon-level wind that battered the UK on Saturday, we knew the conditions would take a starring role.
And with 40mph gusts swirling around the stadium’s bowl, there was no real advantage to either side, although City’s decision to switch ends after winning the toss seemed to have no effect with Sunderland dominating proceedings in the first half.
With a combination of good goalkeeping from Max O’Leary and the aforementioned crossbar, Sunderland were denied what would have been a deserved win.
But while a victory would have been a starting point to generate some momentum as the season otherwise limps to its conclusion, in the grand scheme of the season it’s matterless.
This was the footballing equivalent of two bald men fighting over a comb. Sunderland, like Bristol City, are slap bang in the middle of the table, unable to reach the play-offs barring a remarkable set of events, and unlikely to be relegated.
There was huffing and puffing, but any blowing down of houses would have been solely down to the weather, and not the football on display.
Sunderland’s season is very much in limp mode but, yes, there were at least some positives to take from the day.
Firstly – a point. A lovely solitary point. Putting at least one point on the board after Easter Monday’s whitewash was important. And that’s now five points from a possible 30 since Michael Beale’s sacking. So that’s decent, isn’t it? High performance culture indeed.
Secondly, it was a positive to see players returning from lengthy injury lay-offs on Saturday. We know the recruitment has been way off the mark this season but Sunderland have also been desperately unlucky with injuries to the likes of Patrick Roberts, Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin, and of course the continued absence of Corry Evans whose own rehabilitation suffered a setback during the international break.
So it was pleasing that the likes of Clarke, Roberts and latterly Alese were able to play some part in proceedings on Saturday. All three are some way off the levels they’d set for themselves but there were flashes of brilliance from Clarke, who seems a shoe-in as the Black Cats’ player of the year.
A player of the year contest in a season like this brings us back to bald men and combs but Clarke is easily, naturally Sunderland’s best player and while he was not yet firing on all cylinders, it was pleasing to see him back in action on Saturday.
Having unfairly taken a lot of flak for his performance against Blackburn, Roberts was brighter on his second-half introduction. Alongside Bradley Dack and Clarke in the attacking three behind Jobe Bellingham, there was, for once, experience and nous in Sunderland’s forward line and if all three can get up to 100%, there’s a chance of finishing the season on something of a high.
Alese has had a torrid time of it, spending as much time in the treatment room as Bradley Dack has spent featuring on ITV docusoaps, and Sunderland have had to be careful with managing his return to the team.
However, a not-yet-fully-fit Alese on Saturday was a huge upgrade on Leo Hjelde who, having seen him play there a few times now, does not look like a left-back. However, having seen Hjelde also play at centre-half, he doesn’t look like one of those either. It seems his best position is simply nowhere near the starting line-up.
Hjelde is just another player who hasn’t improved what we already have. We’ve seen more joy in players coming back from the treatment table than we have from the players brought into the club. That has to change in the summer, surely.
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Anyway, back to the positives. No, that was it.
We go into Tuesday night’s game against a Leeds side involved in a three-way tussle for automatic promotion. Our finest result of the season was the home win against Daniel Farke’s side, but with Leeds having everything to play for, and us having nothing to play for, I am slightly worried.
We’re playing for pride now - hopefully that will be the overriding feeling on Tuesday night, and that the positives we’re looking for won’t be so difficult to grasp.
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