GROUNDHOG DAYS CAN’T CONTINUE
Jack Ross started this week by saying that if the club didn’t get three wins, they would have to take some criticism.
Pressure has been rising on the basis that even if Sunderland have stayed just about in the automatic promotion hunt, their performances have dipped.
And their chronic inability to score twice has been producing a raft of draws that have seen Barnsley and Luton Town take the initiative in this promotion race. So this frustrating evening will have done little to change the narrative on Wearside and little to quell the disquiet that has been building in recent weeks.
Another 1-1 draw will leave an unmistakable sense of groundhog day, though this game provided frustration of a different kind.
There was an unmistakable improvement from the Black Cats but not enough to kill off a resilient Blackpool side that were clearly thrilled to leave with a share of the spoils.
Both the side that Ross picked to start this game and the opening encounters of the contest suggested that there had been a recognition of that fluidity that has been so badly lacking from the Black Cats since the Christmas period.
Ross moved to a side that far better reflected his preferred style of play. The return of Duncan Watmore brought the pace and drive Sunderland needed to stretch the opposition defence. Having noted a frustrating inability of his side in recent weeks to get in support of the striker from midfield, Lynden Gooch dropped deeper to try and correct that. The results were mixed. Gooch was ineffectual and while Watmore played well, the end product was still just not quite there as he fights to return to peak fitness. If the main criticism of Sunderland in recent weeks has been that they have neither created enough nor had enough shots, then it must be said that this was an improvement.
They created more than enough openings to get that second goal they have so craved.
Will Grigg missed two glorious opportunities, while other forwards snatched at openings in the box.
There were errors on the ball, certainly, but after a wobble at the start of the second half where the Black Cats badly lost their shape and structure, they tried to play with intent and a good tempo.
That was arguably embodied by the performance of Jack Baldwin, a centre-back who can occasionally try and force things but constantly drove to try and get his side in good positions in the final third.
It didn’t always work, but he should have had a fine assist when Grigg missed from a matter of yards and in that sense his goal was due reward.
This was a night when Sunderland showed greater promise but ultimately fell just short. In a sense that there is where they find themselves as a team on the whole.
Their last eight matches have produced six draws and eight goals.
In the form table they sit ninth, well off the pace being set by Luton Town and Barnsley. Time is running out to snap out of this run of results. Ross felt this performance was a step towards doing that. Greater threat in the final third, more shots on goal, an encouraging performance in terms of positions at least, from Will Grigg. He was pleased too, that the players responded in the latter stages after being so clearly affected by the pressure in the first half. Ultimately, it was a performance he would ‘put his name to every day’. He will know, nevertheless, that in the next two games the results will have to follow.