Editorial: Sunderland's Grit Against Millwall — Resilience, Frustration, and Positives

Today at 01:00 AM

Despite injuries, suspensions, and missed opportunities, Sunderland remain unbeaten in nine. A look at standout performances and room for improvement.

I said before the Millwall game that I would have taken a draw — I'm just not sure I wanted to achieve it in the way we did.

I know that after a run of three draws, a fourth doesn't sound particularly tempting, but given the circumstances, a point on the road was absolutely fine. With eight players missing who would have ordinarily played a part — Jobe Bellingham, Trai Hume, and Patrick Roberts were all suspended, whilst Dennis Cirkin, Romaine Mundle, Alan Browne, Leo Hjelde, and Nazariy Rusyn are injured — it was going to be tough to cobble together a side, never mind one capable of giving the form team in the division a run for their money.

Millwall are no world-beaters, but they know how to defend, and they make the most out of what they've got. They're direct, physical, and they're taking plenty of points off other teams. They've beaten Burnley and Leeds recently at home, so they're not a bunch of mugs.

For ninety or so minutes, we had them by the balls. We started brilliantly, scored a fantastic goal, and our defending was so good that Anthony Patterson was a spectator for the most part. But then — disaster. We piled forward when the better option would have been to calm things down and hold on to the ball, and we were made to pay for it. Aleksic saw his shot saved, and then we were left running back towards our own goal with a bunch of barely fit players who had pushed themselves to their limit.

We've got to learn from that. Chris said it best on the podcast we did after the game — there were various moments in the second half where we were desperate to just calm things down and hold on to the ball, but we didn't. Sadly, I think that's where we've missed Bellingham most in these last three games. Dan Neil in particular was far too careless with his use of the ball in that second period, and we had no outlet up top as Wilson Isidor struggled in the physical battle with their lad Hutchinson at the back.

There were positives, though, that we can't just ignore because we're frustrated at chucking two points away.

I thought that Chris Mepham was absolutely outstanding. Josh Coburn is an absolute handful, and he'll run many Championship defenders ragged this season, but our Rolls-Royce at the back handled him excellently. It was a masterclass in defending from a footballer who really should be playing in the Premier League. There's nothing that he can't do. I'd go as far as to say he's the classiest centre-back I've seen for Sunderland since Jonny Evans.

Our full back four was very good for the majority of the game. O'Nien was a solid replacement for Hume at right back, and Aji Alese slotted straight back in and did a canny job in place of the injured Cirkin. This was the perfect game for Dan Ballard, really, who is at his best when the ball is in the air waiting to be headed. He's not great on the deck, and I think that's where he'll ultimately fall down in his career, but this was a proper meat-and-potato game of footy, and he was loving wallying the ball away every time it came near him.

I was calling for Eliezer Mayenda to play on the right wing before the game, so I was delighted to see him do as well as he did. You could tell that Millwall hadn't really done their homework on him, and his directness when coming inside made him hard to handle. I can genuinely see a future for him out on the right-hand side because he's got everything in his locker to be devastating down that flank. He's made it hard to justify dropping him for Roberts on Tuesday, and that can only be a good thing.

On the other side, I thought Tommy Watson was fantastic, particularly for the first hour or so, though he understandably tired towards the end. He was in his natural position, and what a difference that made — he was gliding past the Millwall players at times. He's going to get a good run in the side in that position now that we know Mundle is out until after the new year, and I think he'll turn in even better performances than the one he gave on Saturday once he starts feeling his way into that role and getting more comfortable.

There was also the goal from Aaron Connolly, who took the volley on effortlessly. It's a shame he got injured, and I hope he's not out for long because good strikers thrive on the confidence that scoring goals provides. He'll want to stay in the team and keep doing what he does best.

So, look — yes, we're all gutted we didn't get the win, but it's not the end of the world. We're still unbeaten in nine, and we'll have a bunch of really good players back available for Tuesday night's game, so let's see how it goes.

We're still in a fantastic position and doing better than I would have ever expected, so let's not go overboard with the criticism and critique. We were dealt a rough hand, and we almost took three points away from home against a team that doesn't lose many games. It is what it is.