Failings of the Cats are just so striking
LEAGUE One is looming large for Sunderland.
Not merely because they lost at Cardiff City - the Bluebirds are third in the table and are a good side, even though they had lost their previous four games.
No, it was the manner of the Wearsiders’ defeat - again which was so alarming.
A gritty first-half performance saw them reach the break goalless - only for a basic mistake at a set-piece to cost them within seconds of the restart.
Add to that Didier Ndong’s dubious red card minutes later, and then conceding a second goal five minutes after that, and the game was lost in the space of just 10 minutes after the break.
Cardiff’s third and fourth goals in the final 10 minutes just turned a collapse into a debacle. Sports writer
Around 900 Sunderland fans set off in the early hours to make the 620-mile round trip to South Wales in time for a lunchtime kick-off.
It was a sign of just how bad their team was that, despite all that effort to get there, most fans did not hang around for the fulltime whistle.
Boss Chris Coleman said afterwards relegation was ‘inevitable’ if Sunderland continue to concede soft goals - and I agree with him.
Even if the Wearsiders can tighten up defensively - and, to be fair, they have kept clean sheets in four out of 10 of Coleman’s games in charge - it might not be enough to save them.
Their failings are at both ends of the pitch.
With leading scorer Lewis Grabban having deserted at the beginning of January, and then James Vaughan jumping ship to Wigan on Friday, Sunderland do not possess a senior striker.
They arrived at Cardiff reliant on 19-year-old Josh Maja - a promising talent who had played just 155 minutes of league football - backed up by 18-year-old Joel Asoro, who has yet to start a league game, on the bench.
Sunderland cannot afford to pin their survival hopes on players with so little experience.
They cannot afford new strikers but they must make use of the loan system to add more firepower in this transfer window - or they are doomed.
As Coleman acknowledged on Saturday, they cannot wait until deadline day.
With back-to-back games against relegation rivals Hull City and Birmingham City, the Tigers due on Wearside next weekend, they must have new faces in place before that game.
For all the growing sense of foreboding, Sunderland are not dead yet.
The one crumb of Wearside comfort at the weekend was every one of their relegation rivals dropped points.
The gap between Sunderland and fourth-bottom remains three points but only because of the failings of those teams above them. They should be grateful for small mercies.