Sunderland were unlucky – again – but deserved Pompey loss

For 25 minutes on Saturday, Sunderland were well in the game against Portsmouth, and they were so unlucky when Luke O’Nien’s longrange effort crashed against the post.

But it has to be said that as soon as Portsmouth scored the first goal, there was only ever going to be one winner.

The second half was particularly worrying, as Sunderland laboured and confidence and belief seemed to drop quickly, which is another thing for Phil Parkinson to worry about.

In fact, the scoreline could have been worse for Sunderland but for Jon McLaughlin.

It was just a bad day all round against a major rival, and the away fans must have been so frustrated on the long journey back to the North East.

Sunderland should have had at least one penalty and if it is true that these things even themselves out over a long campaign then we are due an awful lot going our way in the second half of the season.

I won’t hold my breathe though.

Did that midweek game on the pitch at Tranmere Rovers take energy out of the players?

It is possible, but that doesn’t explain the misplaced passes, picking the wrong options or our vulnerability from set-pieces as Sunderland’s defending went to pieces.

Both the Pompey goals came from set-pieces, and while the delivery in was decent, a good, organised defence should have been able to cope far better than they did.

With the benefit of hindsight, it might have been better to rest one or two from the midweek game, especially with new players arriving in the shape of Antione Semenyo,

Bailey Wright, Josh Scowen and Declan John.

But it is always tempting for a football manager to say ‘same again, lads’ after an away win, and harder to justify changes.

So, Sunderland’s ninegame unbeaten run ended at Portsmouth and, unfortunately, I don’t think anyone could say they deserved anything different.