SUNDERLAND striker Josh Maja has been given until the end of next week to sign a new contract at the Stadium of Light, manager Jack Ross has revealed.

As well as admitting Lynden Gooch has agreed the terms of a new deal, Ross has suggested Maja has been told to decide what he wants to do before the trip to Charlton on January 5.

The 19-year-old is out of contract in the summer and he reminded everyone of his quality in front of goal by heading in Bryan Oviedo’s brilliant cross in the 44th minute against Shrewsbury Town.

The Shrews had taken the lead 14 minutes earlier when defender Luke Waterfall had headed in and the draw left Sunderland four points behind second-placed Luton. Maja’s contract was the hot topic afterwards, however.

Ross said: “My understanding is that Lynden, subject to paperwork, everything has been agreed. Like everything, when it is signed and registered will be when to confirm, I’d be loathe to say definite.

“With Josh he has been made a final offer if you like, which now has a deadline of the end of this week, prior to the Charlton game (Saturday). I’ve chatted with him and should he agree that then great, if not then we will have to look at that as a club and the club will decide how to proceed.

“I want to keep him at the club. From player to manager I would believe he will stay with the club.”

Ross was left disappointed that Sunderland couldn’t find a winner against Shrewsbury, who have the worst away record in League One.

He said: “There was frustration for the second half and maybe last ten minutes of the first half, prior to that disappointment at level of performance.

“It surprised me because the group were really bright since Wednesday, they had been bright in warm up, so things that might concern you were all ticked.

“There maybe are reasons why. The stadium had a different feel to Boxing Day, even though there was still a fantastic crowd in but there were 13,000 less than Wednesday because it makes the atmosphere different. That’s not an excuse, we were slow, laboured, we dominated territory but they made it hard.

“We have to be careful we don’t get dramatic about things here, we have disappointed in the opening games. The one thing we face here is teams play in different manners.

“They see a certain result positive, nothing wrong with that. Second half was a perfect example of that. We are unbeaten at home, scored in every league game and points wise we are giving ourselves a chance. We can’t replicate the number of draws in the remaining home games, that is something we are aware of also.”

Shrewsbury boss Sam Ricketts was understandably far happier with the outcome at the Stadium of Light, knowing his team are battling to climb clear of relegation trouble and have the worst away record in the division.

Ricketts said: “I am delighted with the performance and the draw is a very good draw for us. We set up with a game plan to frustrate, to make it hard against a very good team with good individual players.

"We haven’t got a great away record, so it’s pleasing to frustrate and for the first 25 minutes I thought we were excellent and got in front.

“For me home, away, it’s the performance level that matters. If we perform like we do at home we will games. It should give us confidence, they have hit certain standards today. If you play wherever, even on the beach, if you hit standards you get results.

“I went back on last couple of Sunderland games, the Portsmouth game away, Bradford here, every team has certain weaknesses I thought we could exploit. Knowing individual players in the Sunderland team we had to be respectful of that. We tried to play on the break a little and got our reward.”