McGEADY ON FIRE TO FEED WYKE SPREE
Striker heads four, all from Aiden assists
LEE JOHNSON praised Aiden McGeady after watching him at his “vintage best” by creating all four of Charlie Wyke’s goals to lift Sunderland back into the play-off zone.
McGeady sent over four crosses for Wyke to head them all beyond Doncaster Rovers keeper Ellery Balcombe.
And on a crazy afternoon at the Stadium of Light, the Black Cats preserved their handsome lead even though goalkeeper Lee Burge scored an own-goal and saved two second-half penalties for the home side.
But this was an afternoon for McGeady and Wyke to be proud.
The 28-year-old’s first-half hattrick was followed by his 21st goal of the season in the 54th minute to take him to the top of the League One scoring charts.
“Four goals from Charlie, four assists for Aiden, two saves from penalties for Burge – it was vintage McGeady,” said Johnson.
“Aiden has been excellent, I have enjoyed working with him. The pair of them have a nice partnership going.
“McGeady’s numbers have been good. He is always challenging, that is what you expect from a player who has had his career.
“I thought first half was outstanding in our pressing. Doncaster are a good side and showed that with spells in the second half. We got to expend a lot of energy and we got our reward.”
After Jon Taylor, who had one of two second-half penalties saved by Lee Burge, had threat
ened to open the scoring for Rovers early on, Sunderland took the lead and never looked back.
The first arrived in the seventh minute when McGeady’s corner arrived in the area for Wyke to nod down and inside Balcombe’s bottom right corner.
Five minutes later it was 2-0. This time McGeady got beyond his marker to cross for Wyke again to head in.
And with 31 minutes on the clock the same combination added a third goal. This time McGeady cut back, did a little trick and centred where Wyke was on hand to claim his 20th goal of the campaign.
McGeady and Lynden Gooch had chances to add to the lead before the break.
After Burge had helped Taylor Richards’ effort that hit a post over the line seven minutes after the break, Wyke headed in number four less than a minute later.
Burge then denied both Taylor and Jason Lokilo from the penalty spot, with Sunderland doing enough to move up to sixth.
Doncaster boss Darren Moore, whose side have been beaten twice in a week having lost just one of their previous ten, said: “From our point of view it’s not good enough.
“It started poorly and we got back into the game but we gave an own-goal away. We had two penalties a couple of weeks ago that Ellery saved and this time we had two saved. It was our chance to get back into the game but it just wasn’t good enough.
“There were three free headers in the box and an own goal. It tells the story of the game. It’s back to the drawing board and back to work on Monday.
“All four goals were avoidable really. In the second half I thought we had them penned in and it was almost like attack versus defence but they were able to sit in because they had the lead.
“Had we scored at those times it might have been a different game but to concede again was disappointing. The damage was done giving them those goals in the first half.”
Sunderland are still just behind Rovers in the promotion race but Johnson knows how inconsistent his side have been.
He said: “We must not have that Sunderland self-sabotage element. Even I was better today because I have been getting frustrated with decisions going against us, even if I got booked, that was a momentary lapse.”