Sunderland manager impressed with Baldwin’s return to action
Jack Ross believes Jack Baldwin benefited from his spell out after impressing on his return, helping the Black Cats to a point at promotion rivals Barnsley.
The summer signing (pictured below) was dropped after three errors inside a week last month, Jimmy Dunne and Tom Flanagan instead favoured at the back.
But Flanagan missed last night’s goalless draw at second-placed Barnsley through concussion, presenting an opportunity for Baldwin to regain his place.
And the 25-year-old was superb, defensively solid while he almost provided a brilliant assist for Max Power, the midfielder shooting wide.
In dreadful conditions, Sunderland had to settle for a point, the Black Cats third, four points behind the Tykes with a game in hand still.
On Baldwin’s return, Ross said: “I was really pleased with him, I have said often enough about the step up this season and dealing with the expectation of this club.
“He has played a lot of games and played a lot of minutes and made a good contribution.
“We made a sensible decision to take him out the firing line mentally and physically and you saw the benefits of that at Barnsley.”
While Sunderland welcomed another clean sheet, it was the first time they have failed to score this season in a league fixture.
Ross added: “We have taken pride in the scoring record, but given the conditions and opponent we were playing against we will take the point and move on.
“It wasn’t to be for us, we had a couple of opportunities.”
Those both fell to Power, playing in a more advanced role, his first half effort well saved, before he prodded wide when through on goal, under pressure from Ethan Pinnock in the second. Ross added: “I thought Max did well, if you are judging him on attempts on goal then his effort at goal in the first half was terrific and forced a really good save.
“I think second half he would have been disappointed not to score, maybe Pinnock did just enough to put him off.
“We asked him to play in that more advanced role next to Will [Grigg] and he did well on a difficult night for everybody.”
Sunderland have been charged by the FA following a touchline melee during their 1-1 draw at Wycombe Wanderers.
The incident, which took place during the 95th minute of the clash at Adams Park, saw George Honeyman and Nathan Tyson shown red as the two benches collided shortly after Duncan Watmore’s dramatic late leveller.
Both teams have now been charged with a breach of FA Rule E20 - which alleges that the club failed to ensure their players and staff conducted themselves in an orderly manner.
Sunderland have until 6pm on Friday to respond to the charges and could appeal if they feel there are grounds to do so.
The FA are treating the cases as ‘non-standard’, meaning there are not set sanctions in place.