Grigg ‘sore’ after horror miss – but will bounce back to form

Jack Ross believes £4million deadline day signing Will Grigg will soon hit the goal trail for Sunderland – and backed him to bounce back quickly from his awful miss against Blackpool.

With Sunderland trailing, the former Wigan Athletic striker latched on to Jack Baldwin’s long ball, rounded Mark Howard in the Blackpool goal only to then shoot wide.

It was a dreadful miss and Grigg had his head in his hands, as did the watching supporters.

Ross has no concerns that it will affect Grigg and has backed him to bounce back strongly.

Ross said: “The two clear cut opportunities he had, just prior to their opening goal and obviously in the second half, I think he would back himself 99 times out of a 100 to take them, particularly the second one. “The great thing for me is he in those positions, if we can keep getting the ball into him in those positions then he will score goals. His track record suggests nothing else. He is a bit sore but we still managed to get something from the game.

“He prides himself on scoring, he is a goalscorer, and he will believe he could have marked his home debut with a couple of goals. If we keep creating the chances for him, he will take them.”

Both teams had strong penalty shouts, Sunderland for a push on Luke O’Nien and Blackpool for a Lynden Gooch foul on Antony Evans. Neither were given and Ross felt both were penalties.

Ross said: “I thought both were penalties, that is without seeing them again. That was from my view from the technical area.”

In the end Sunderland had to settle for another point, their 13th draw.

Ross added: “With the exception of the 15 minute period post their goal to half-time, I thought we were good the opening half hour and second half we were good.

“Because we have played better and created more chance than recent weeks, there is that frustration but it is a different frustration than in recent games.”

Max Power was missing due to ‘family issues’, while Adam Matthews was just dropped, Luke O’Nien favoured at rightback.