Writing on wall as Reading put paid to hopes of Black Cats rally

Sunderland 1 Reading 3

Well, it was good while it lasted. Sunderland’s glorious one-match winning run went for a Burton in Chris Coleman’s first game as Sunderland manager at the Stadium of Light. Coleman will have learnt something about the character of his players, but the Welshman is no closer to cracking the conundrum that befuddled David Moyes and Simon Grayson. So what does he know now that he did not at kick-off?

One last chance Coleman will not just be taking on his old club Fulham in Sunderland’s next match at the Stadium of Light, it will be the club’s last chance to avoid going a whole year without winning a match at home in any competition. Beating Burton Albion the previous weekend to end a 17-game winless streak in the Championship raised hopes that their record-breaking barren run might also be at threat but as soon as McManaman was sent off for a second bookable offence, it never looked likely. The run now stands at 350 days, 21 matches, since the Black Cats fans were able to celebrate a home win. Callum McManaman is sent off Sunderland not thinking straight Lee Cattermole was very fortunate not to be sent off in the first half but McManaman pushed Keith Stroud’s patience too far. A little over a minute after being booked for bringing Sone Aluko down from behind, Cattermole put another rash challenge in on the forward and was fortunate not to pick up a second caution. The half was heading for 0-0 when in its fourth added minute Adam Matthews stood a slightly overhit George Honeyman cross up to the back post and McManaman bundled the ball over the line with his hand. Not only was the goal disallowed but having already been booked for a 15th-minute foul on Modou Barrow, McManaman was sent off. Ref Stroud was booked as the players came off at half-time, but the villain of the piece was in red-and-white stripes, not green.

Reading take the sting out of Colemania On the back of Burton, Sunderland need a rumbustious start to Coleman’s opening home game. The South Stand did its best to get behind the players, with plenty of renditions of “Chrissy Coleman’s redand-white army,” but Reading’s style of football is perfectly suited to quietening a home crowd, playing a brand of patient football which kept it away from the Black Cats without threatening them too often. Sunderland really needed to force the early pace but as against Aston Darron Gibson (L) of Sunderland Villa, they were pretty passive when the opposition had the ball and the atmosphere never really took off until it turned to anger at McManaman’s sending-off and the inadequacies of the home team.

Coleman not having much luck with injuries Fortune tends not to follow you around when you are struggling at the bottom of the table, and the Black Cats suffered another injury setback in the warm-up. When Paddy McNair, inching his way back to full fitness after an 11-month