What were the positives and negatives from Sunderland's victory over Sheffield United?
01/02/2025 01:00 AM
Goals from Eliezer Mayenda and Wilson Isidor gave the Lads a superb home victory over the Blades. What did our writers make of the game?
Anthony Gair says...
Eliezer Mayenda's impact
Mayenda gave us the dream start, capitalising on a Sheffield United defensive error to score within the opening minutes.
His awareness and cool finish showed exactly why he's such a promising player.
Starting the game on the front foot was crucial and Mayenda delivered for us when it mattered most.
Wilson Isidor's sharpness
Isidor's goal was a moment of quality that highlighted his growing influence in our attacking lineup.
His movement off the ball was excellent, and his composed finish doubled our advantage, giving us control of the game.
Performances like this underline his importance to the squad moving forward.
Luke O'Nien's unfortunate own goal
O'Nien's o.g just before half time was a disappointing moment in an otherwise solid first-half performance.
The deflection under pressure gave Sheffield United a route back into the match, reminding us how quickly things can turn in the Championship.
Missed chances to extend our lead
Whilst we were on top for large spells, we didn't fully capitalise on our dominance.
A few missed opportunities in the final third could've proven costly if Sheffield United had found their rhythm in the second half. We needed to be more clinical to see the game out.
John Wilson says...
Sunderland's attackers cause havoc
What a joy to see two attackers up front, as Eliezer Mayenda and Wilson Isidor had their defence scared stiff with their speed and direct running.
It was also noticeable that we'd worked on putting the ball over the top for them to run on to. Great stuff!
A lively Stadium of Light atmosphere
Once again, the crowd played its part in keeping the Lads going, especially towards the end when nails were being bitten.
There was also a new singing group that had popped up in the North East corner.
I don't know where they came from, but they made added noise underneath the away fans.
Anthony Patterson's distribution
I said last week that he would give a goal away by trying to be clever on the ball, and he very nearly did that last night.
He's a great shot stopper, but his footwork and distribution are awful.
The shadow of the 'early leavers'
The other side of our supporter base are all those leave early.
With five minutes to go and the game on a knife edge, the players needed all of our support to hold on, and hundreds of people decided to leave early.
Why don't they make getting home late part of the matchday experience? It does my head in.
Mark Wood says...
Well done, Eliezer Mayenda!
He had bad misses against Stoke and Blackburn which could've made all the difference to those games, and he'd taken a fair bit of flak for them.
He took his goal really well here and you could see the confidence flowing through him for the rest of the game. Along with Wilson Isidor, he gave the United centre backs a nightmare all night long and the pass he played on the break shortly after his goal was a part of his game that gets overlooked, but was top drawer.
I hope he carries this into the next few games, as we saw something similar before he got injured early in the season.
Régis' le Bris game plan
It may not have suited the nervier fans but I thought the way our coach set us up for the second half was masterful.
After half time, it was inevitable that Chris Wilder would have his team come right back at us, but the way we were set up to pick them off and hit them on the break made it look that we were the more likely to score in the second half, and we could easily have had another couple of goals.
We gave Sheffield United, who are going to be there or thereabouts, two hard games this season, and they know it.
A cracking game to watch
So much happened in that first half that I ended up taking my beta-blocker an hour early. It was entertaining stuff that had me on the edge of the seat for much of the time, and the second half saw plenty of chances too.
Our attacking play is a long way from the head scratching that was going on last season and although we're not in the top two, we're still giving the teams at the top plenty to think about.
For me, we have a good team that I enjoy watching and will get better still over time.
Self-inflicted pressure almost costs us
It could be our motto at times, and we saw it last night.
We all love Luke O'Nien but he'll want to forget the first half, and quite what he was doing trying a headlock in our penalty area in the second half, only he knows, especially when he knew the referee would give another penalty if he saw it.
VAR would have a meltdown if we got into the Premier League and they saw some of our antics at set pieces.
Whilst giving full credit to Anthony Paterson for the penalty save, he also had a moment in the 25th minute where I found myself screaming, 'Stop doing that, you ****!'. It's not the first time this season he's dallied and tried to dribble with an attacker coming in full steam and got away with it.
Didn't he see Amad against Fraser Forster a couple of weeks ago?
