Ross: I was going to take goal hero off

JACK Ross has revealed he almost substituted Jerome Sinclair before he notched his first goal for Sunderland this week, writes JAMES HUNTER.

Black Cats’ manager Ross considered sacrificing on-loan Watford striker Sinclair in the wake of Bryan Oviedo’s sendingoff against Peterborough United on Tuesday.

He then changed his mind and withdrew Josh Maja instead to bring on left-back Reece James to fill the defensive gap left by the red card.

The score was 1-0 at the time but Posh soon equalised - only for Sinclair to put Sunderland back in front with the first league goal of his career before the visitors levelled for a second time.

Ross was relieved he had a change of heart and left Sinclair on for a while longer before he made way for 18-year-old Benji Kimpioka in injury time.

He said: “In the wake of the sending-off, I was thinking about taking Jerome off just because I was worried about how long he would last.

“We were going to leave just Josh up but I changed my mind because I wanted to stretch the game and he did that - digging in to last as long as he did.

“He started to cramp up towards the end and I had a wildcard in Benji to throw on.”

Ross hopes Sinclair is now up and running after opening his account - having endured a stopstart two months on Wearside which has seen the 22-year-old in and out of the side due to a combination of injury, the blistering goalscoring form of Maja and the system Ross has tended to play.