Cats’ missed opportunities and penalty frustrations
Sunderland were left to rue a host of missed chances in the first half after falling to a penalty shoot-out defeat against Hull City.
WillGrigg wastheonly player to miss during a high-quality shootout, allowing Hull to edge through. Grigg had been left frustrated when an excellent second-half finish was ruled out for offside, Phil Parkinson’s side unable to makethemost of a dominant display.
If there had been fears that Hull City, in action through much of the summer as they looked to beat the Championship drop, could have the edge in fitness and physicality, they were soon dispelled.
Parkinson had spoken in the build-up of his player’s desperation to get back to competitive action after such a long absence, and it was evident right from the off.
It had been a big call to lead the line with Grigg, a reward for the striker’s lively pre-season after Charlie Wyke had for so much of Parkinson’s tenure been the key figure up front.
The Northern Irishman was into his work with real intent, while Aiden O’Brien did well to control the ball in the box before Max Power was denied only by Josh Emmanuel on the Hull goal line.
With O’Brien pushing right up alongside Grigg, it was an attacking twist on the 3-4-3
that Parkinson has preferred in 2020. The Black Cats were dominant through the early stages and should have been ahead when Denver Hume drilled a low cross into the box. Grigg did well to keep the loose ball alive and Chris Maguire was frustrated to miss the target from close range.
Luke O’Nien almost capitalised on the latter, getting free from a free-kick and heading an effort down towards goal. It took a fine stop from Matt Ingram to prevent the Cats from taking a worthy lead.
Grigg flashed the ball
across the box and O’Brien was just unable to connect as he stretched out a right boot to try and reach the cross.
Moments before, the Irish forward had almost produced a stunning assist when he spun away from four Hull players in the middle of the pitch, the away defence just managing to recover in time to deny Grigg.
Maguire released O’Brien with a precise pass. He looked certain to score as he bore down on goal but his effort was poor, dragged comfortably wide of the far post.
In the seceond half, Grigg thought he had opened the scoring when turning him a cross from O’Nien after an excellent move, but was left irate when he rose to see the linesman had raised his flag for offside. Parkinson reshuffled his attacking options in search of a winner, with Charlie Wyke andLyndenGoochintroduced. Wyke came close shortly after his introduction, drawing a good low stop from Ingram with an effort from the edge of the area.
The Black Cats had been resolute throughout, with Lee Burge having virtually nothing to do throughout the 90.
Though Grigg had looked to be unlucky when his goal was ruled out, Sunderland’s opponents had been tougher to open up in the latter stages and the penalty shoot-out had seemed inevitable towards the end of the contest.
Grigg was the first to step up and was denied by Ingram.
There were no errors after that, nine excellent penalties allowing the away side to edge through. Burge had come close to three of Hull’s efforts, but was unable to deny a series of high-quality finishes.