Must-win games thing of past – now it’s time to look to future

Reading 2 Sunderland 2

YOU could say it was a must-win game at Reading, but really the phrase has lost all meaning it has been so worn out on Wearside this season.

The sad fact is the Black Cats are another step closer to League One and the first consecutive relegations after their 2-2 draw at the Madejski Stadium

With their longer-term fate now all but decided, the final games of the season are all about the stories behind the scorelines, rather than the numbers themselves.

With one eye on next season, Chris Coleman has to assess what he needs and who he can afford to keep. So what lessons did he learn from a highoctane but ultimately disappointing draw?

SUNDERLAND ARE STILL FIGHTING

WE have known for some time that the Black Cats are going out of this division, and not in the way some of their most optimistic fans might have hoped, but at least they were able to go over and applaud their fans at the end Callum McManaman with their heads held high.

The important thing for them in the relegation run-in has been the spirit shown by individuals, because asking them collectively to pull something out of the fire was always going to be beyond them.

Added time was an absolutely frantic affair, Reading wasting three good chances, Joel Asoro having a shot saved at the near post and he and Paddy McNair having strikes deflected out for corners.

Sunderland had more shots and comfortably more corners. Numbers like that cannot tell the complete story of a game, but it does at least illustrate that the towel has not thrown in on a day they dropped to the bottom of the table.

In this season, you have to be grateful for small mercies. .

GOALKEEPING SITUATION IS GETTING NO BETTER

REGARDLESS of who wears the shirt, Sunderland have had problems in goal all season.

Although he obviously did not cost anything – this is the 2018 Black Cats, after all – Lee Camp could probably be said to be the club’s biggest, most important signing of January. But the experienced goalkeeper has just brought more of the same in a miserable season.

Rather than calm a jittery defence down, Camp’s unconvincing performances have only added to the nervousness.

The Wearsiders were the best team Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is brought down in the first half at the Madejski Stadium but Camp compounded the poor finishing at the other end by allowing the Royals to take the lead.

It all came from a poor kick which allowed Reading to keep the pressure on their visitors. When they worked the ball to Sone Aluko, Camp’s save could only spill the ball up invitingly. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson reacted faster than any of the defenders around him and as he was about to latch on to the ball, Camp tripped him. The goalkeeper could do nothing about Liam Moore’s well-struck penalty.

Camp did make an excellent save