Sunderland: Alex Neil offers assessment of mixed bag defeat against Accrington

The Black Cats were in a position of comfort leading 1-0 through Ross Stewart’s penalty in the first half and had plenty of chances before that to see the game off.

But in a turn of events, a mistake in defence from Bailey Wright led to him conceding a penalty which Sean McConville dispatched. From there, Sunderland failed to recover as Korede Adedoyin slammed home from close range to win the game for Accrington.

“What I took from it is the fact that if you don’t take opportunities and chances that come your way then you may pay the consequence of that” said Neil.

“I thought we could have easily been four or five nil up at half-time. At the start of the second half we had two great chances. One I think Jack (Clarke) gets his given offside. I haven’t seen it back and he wasn’t offside but he doesn’t score.

“The other one, he is clean through, cuts inside and the keeper makes another good save. We had more than enough in the game and played really well for ¾ of the match and then what happened was they started jumping a bit more aggressively.

“We get caught on the ball and as soon as we conceded the penalty, the game changed for ten or fifteen minutes at that point because they just do what they do. Put the ball forward and be aggressive. We didn’t win enough battles.

“I thought we saw the very best of us in the first half. Some of our football was excellent and for that 15 minute spell in the second half I thought we saw the worst of us.”

Bailey Wright in action for Sunderland against Accrington Stanley

It’s the second friendly defeat this week for the Black Cats who were beaten by Bradford City 2-0 at Valley Parade on Tuesday night. Next up for them is a final friendly game against Hartlepool United on Monday evening.

From the game at the Wham Stadium, Sunderland threw away what looked like a comfortable result and failed to recover from Accrington’s equalising goal.

The manager has plenty to ponder between now and the start of the season and while he took comfort in the fact his side weren’t well beaten, there was concern at the way his side weren’t able to recover from a mistake in defence which eventually led to their defeat.

Neil continued: “If you look at the game, Patto had one save from a long throw. The other goals were a penalty that we gave away and the ball was too slow and a scruffy throw. So two throw-ins and a penalty. It wasn’t as if we get outplayed at any point.

“What we didn’t do is we didn’t respond well to the equaliser which is really frustrating because we hadn’t done a lot wrong at that point. One mistake, you need to brush it off and get on with it. Go about your next action in the right manner which we didn’t do.

“As I say, you can’t have five or six chances and not put them away. The simple fact is you put the game to bed in the first half. You go out in the second and it’s a different game.”

Carl Winchester and Leon Dajaku missed the game in Lancashire this afternoon. The Northern Irishman should be available for the game at the Suit Direct Stadium while the German Dajaku will be assessed. “Illness for Winny so he should be fine for Monday. Leon felt an issue with his thigh so that missed him out” said Neil.