Lamentable Kone can have no future after his woeful display

Sunderland 0 Celtic 5 DEFENDER DESERVED WRATH OF FANS

IT is the sound no player wants to hear. The last time Lamine Kone was at the Stadium of Light to pay football it had not been a comfortable experienc experience, but the majority of the bitter opprobriumopprobr at Sunderland’s meek Premier LeagueLeag relegation was directed toward towards the manager first, then the owne owner, and only then the players. Yesterday, it all went Kone’s way. There are few things more embarrassing for a profe professional footballer than havin having your substitution cheered b by your own fans, but that’s what happened when the fourth official raised the numbernu 23 on his board 55 m minutes into Sunderland’s 5-0 humiliation by Celtic. Sometimes, the Blac Black Cats players make it difficu difficult but, generally, football supp supporters want to be just that. At th the Sta- dium of Light they are quick to grab on to any chink of light at the end of the tunnel to encourage their players. But Kone could not be defended any more than he could defend.

A year earlier, Sunderland went out of their way to keep the central defender, their eyes caught by his vital role as Sam Allardyce’s team escaped relegation. Now they would bite your hand off for a half-decent offer.

A player having a nightmare is one thing, but Kone’s sloppy ineptitude dragged debutant Jason Steele down too. Within a quarter of an hour, the goalkeeper had conceded twice, flustered by the wobbliness of the one-time rock in front of him.

Following in Jordan Pickford’s footsteps was always a tall order, but the only senior ‘keeper to have inspired much faith in the warm-up games is Robbin Ruiter – a Dutch trialist yet to sign for the club.

In any game, let alone your debut, you just want a good start. Five minutes in, Tyias Browning played a back pass to Steele, who did not make his attempt to pick out Kone cleanly. The ball looped in the defender’s direction but he ought to have done much better with it, shanking it into the path of centre-forward Callum McGregor, who scored.

Less than 10 minutes later, Celtic sliced Sunderland’s defence wide open. Instead of guarding the door, Kone was dozing, leaving a gap for McGregor to run into. Steele had no chance.

It hardly helped Steele that his opposite number was playing a blinder, despite much less to do.

Craig Gordon’s understudy, Dorus de Vries, had already made a flying save to his right to keep out James Vaughan’s header after former Celtic winger Aiden McGeady dinked a lovely cross for the centre-foward. He would frustrate Vaughan again, once more diving to his right to keep out a weak 36th-minute penalty, then blocking the rebound with his legs. Fellow debutant Lewis Grabban was denied a minute later.

By then, Celtic could have been three up, Steele dragged out of position when a cross came over from the left byline, only for Browning to get in the way of Scott Sinclair’s effort. He did at least save the follow-up, and got lucky when McGregor’s shot from just outside the D struck his left upright, rather than finding the net for his hat-trick.

It was one-way traffic and Steele looked like a man stranded between the lanes of a fast-moving dual carriageway.

When he saved from Olivier Ntcham six minutes before the break, the ball only fell for Jonny Hayes – a winger Derek McInnes was reputedly thinking of bringing to Wearside had he become Sunderland manager. With plenty of time and space to plan what he wanted to do, Hayes controlled and picked his spot.

Kone actually produced a good bit of defending to end the half, stopping Sin-