Matchday Musings: Sunderland take all three points at Pride Park

Today at 01:00 AM

The Lads got the result they needed on Tuesday evening, but Malc Dugdale feels confident that he isn't the only one musing over why it finished 0-1!

I would've taken a 1-0 win before the game and I actually called it in 'Score Predictions', due to expecting the Rams to park the bus and try to get a point, given their position in the league.

To win the way we did was pretty frustrating at times and nerve wracking at others, but when a side wins away from home without shifting up the gearbox, that's often a good sign.

We have to ask, though: why did it go like this?

There are others in the Roker Report team who'll look at the tactics and data later, but for me it was a lack of width and maybe Régis Le Bris jemmying too many similar players into the team instead.

On reflection, I think we maybe should've started with Patrick Roberts over Chris Rigg. We got the result anyway, but I do think this would've made us a more balanced team.

The combination of the injuries we have to wide men and the efforts from Le Bris to try out new shapes and combinations led to a preference for others over Roberts, which meant we had very little natural touchline-hugging, 'go forward' momentum.

To offer a bit of credit, the cobbled-together Derby defence did a good job in preventing us from converting what we created, but we probably could've created more with Roberts down the right, for me.

Even without the wide creativity we'll have in spades when Tommy Watson and Romaine Mundle come back, we secured a shabby (ish) win, but a win all the same. All the pressure is on the likes of Leeds United and Burnley to do the same tonight.

The score did the job in terms of league points, but it's maybe a bit harsh to criticise the Lads too much for not winning by more, when the farce of the second goal transpired as it did.

From my own perspective when watching on TV, the referee gave the goal and the active assistant on the far side of the pitch didn't flag for an offside, nor any other sort of foul play, and the goal was a valid one.

For it to then be mysteriously ruled out for a foul, handball, or whatever other excuse or unknown reason is beyond me and most fans of any team, and it simply has to be looked into by the officials.

Yes, Wilson Isidor should've scored when he ran seventy yards and didn't quite nick it past the keeper just before the hour mark, but the situation around Isidor's converted strike being scratched off was an absolute cluster f*ck of the highest order.

The lad just can't get a break; two penalties saved one day and then a goal mysteriously disallowed a few days later.

I'd really like the club to formally complain about this. Not even any of the commentary teams had a clue, and neither did the officials. A total farce.

I was a bit gutted for the Rams when time after time, players went down with injuries.

They're about to enter the final third of the season and lost another couple of players who would've been very welcome for the run in, after already losing other key figures before kick off.

That's normally what happens to us, and for fans it's a crippler.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case for Sunderland and the combination of a win, a clean sheet and no new injury worries was a welcome outcome.

We didn't shine as we can in many ways but we found a way, and we didn't lose anyone else to the treatment room. We also made a slight improvement to our goal difference, although that should've been improved even further.

We hopefully learned about a few things that don't work against a team down at the bottom end, ready for Plymouth Argyle at the weekend.

From the moment Derby put three substitutes on just before the hour, we really struggled and I was once again left frustrated by the lack of reaction from our own coach and his bench.

Anthony Patterson was forced into a string of punches and saves for a torrid fifteen to twenty minutes, and we were put under immense pressure for extended periods when only 0-1 up.

Surely this was the time to react with a change of shape, personnel, energy, or a bit of all of the above?

As soon as Roberts and Dan Ballard came on, we were right back in the game, and the incident with Isidor's disallowed goal came about moments later.

I appreciate certain players need minutes on the pitch to build fitness and to interlink with the wider team, but we were lucky to come out of that barrage with our lead intact.

That said, days like yesterday are sometimes not really worth overthinking too much.

We won and are now two points behind second-placed Leeds, with themselves and Burnley scheduled to play tonight. The onus is on them to match our result, no matter how scruffy ours was.

We kept a clean sheet. We had another goal denied which we feel should've stood.

We also didn't have any more players pulling up for the physio and we learned a little more about what we can do with the various assets available. We can also see what we'll be able to do as other injured players return and new signings land.

We now move on to our preparations for the weekend and Plymouth; we keep winning however we can, and challenge the others to keep doing the same.

The race for the top two remains on. Bring it on.