Ross hopeful Maja’s on track to face Shrimpers
TOP SCORER LIEKLY TO BE IN SQUAD, SAYS MANAGER
JOSH Maja could be back for Sunderland’s clash with Southend United this weekend after sitting out the win at Doncaster Rovers through injury.
The Black Cats’ nine-goal leading scorer has been carrying an ankle problem and playing through the pain in recent weeks, but Ross had thought he would be available at the Keepmoat Stadium.
However the 19-year-old (pictured) failed to recover in time and was not in the squad, although Ross is hopeful he will be fit this weekend.
He said on Tuesday: “We anticipated yesterday that he would be able to be involved in some way tonight but he didn’t recover as well as we had hoped.
“I made the decision this morning to leave him out of the squad and that was a blow for us but it showed the strength of the squad that we were able to win the game without a man who has contributed so much.
“I would be hopeful for Saturday because it is not a major injury, but I was hopeful for tonight, too!
“We’ve got a few days between now and the weekend, so I’d hope we would have him in the squad at least.”
Sunderland won 1-0 at Doncaster with Chris Maguire netting his fourth goal of the season.
The Black Cats remain third in the League One table, a point outside the automatic promotion places and five points behind the leaders, but with a game in hand over both sides above them. Jack Ross insists he is not impatient for Sunderland to break into the automatic promotion places – just as long as they stay on course.
The Black Cats beat Doncaster Rovers 1-0 at the Keepmoat Stadium to notch their third league win in a row, but they remain in third place, behind Portsmouth and Peterborough with a game in hand of both, with Posh a point ahead of them and Pompey five points in front.
Ross has said that Sunderland need to aim for an average of two points per game over the course of the campaign in order to be in the promotion hunt, and they are ahead of the curve at present with 29 points from their first 14 games.
And he says it is that points-pergame ratio that he is focused on at this stage, rather than the table. “The points-tracker in terms of where we need to be is what concerns me more,” he said. “I know it’s a cliche, but the table is only really important on the last day of the season.
“We are in a good place, on a good run, and to have lost only one of our first 14 games is good – I don’t think anybody in the dressing room would be concerned about not being in the top two at this stage.”
He added: “We spoke in the summer about making winning League One the most important thing you can do in your career. I’ve got players who have done more than that, and who might go on and do more than that in the future, but in the here and now that [prioritising winning League One] has to be the case.
“I now think there is a group of players here who are enjoying winning.
“They are enjoying the challenges we are facing in every game, home games of course but particularly every away game.”
Chris Maguire scored the decisive goal just after half-time, but Sunderland also had goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin to thank for two excellent one-on-one saves at the end of the first period which helped secure back-to-back clean sheets.
Ross said of McLaughlin: “He’s been very good since he came to the club.
“He’s so low-maintenance for me as a manager, his reliability in training and in games, and if you speak to him he’ll say that is part of his job.”