No mystery to missing Maja, just illness
ball in the left-hand channel and raced into the box before beating Mclaughlin with a low shot from a tight angle.
O’nien gave Sunderland a glimmer of hope in the 58th minute when he arrived right on time at the far post to volley home a left-wing cross from James.
But Pompey made sure in the 63rd minute when Hawkins saw his effort from a corner saved by Mclaughlin and when the loose ball broke for Ben Thompson 12 yards out, he fired into the roof of the net.
And Pompey could have added a fourth 20 minutes from time, but Hawkins headed across the face of goal and wide when he should have done better. JOSH Maja missed Sunderland’s defeat at league leaders Portsmouth due to illness, according to Jack Ross.
The club’s 13-goal leading scorer was named on the bench at Fratton Park but played no part as ten-man Sunderland lost 3-1, leading fans to question why the 19-year-old did not feature.
The fact Maja is currently in the final year of his contract on Wearside and talks on a new deal dragging on added a further layer of intrigue.
But Ross insists Maja has been unwell and was included amongst the subs only because Adam Matthews had to withdraw that morning with a calf problem.
Instead Ross started with Duncan Watmore – making his first league start after 13 months out after a knee injury – up front, and says that was how he had planned to set up against Pompey, although Maja would have played a part had it not been for his illness.
“Josh was unwell,” said Ross. “He wouldn’t have started because the way we set up to begin with was what we had worked on and I thought it worked.
“But he would always have come on, regardless of how the game was going, however he wasn’t feeling great this morning and we didn’t really have any other option other than to include him on the bench because we lost Adam Matthews this morning as well. We were a little bit hamstrung in that respect.
“With him being unwell, rather than ask him to play 1-15 minutes in these conditions, we decided to look after him and hopefully he will be OK for Boxing Day.”
Right-back Matthews travelled to the South Coast but was not involved after failing to recover from a problem he suffered in training last week.
Ross said: “Adam had a calf problem towards the end of training on Thursday. He travelled with us because we were hoping it would settle down but it wasn’t right. It wasn’t ideal because our preparations had been based on Adam playing today as well.”
Sunderland were a man down and a goal down early in the second half when Glenn Loovens was dismissed for bringing down Oli Hawkins when he was through on goal, and Gareth Evans converted from the spot.
Ronan Curtis added a second minutes later, and while Luke O’nien pulled a goal back, Ben Thompson restored Pompey’s two-goal cushion within five minutes.