The goals WILL come...I’d try pairing Grigg and Graham in Cats’ front two
Apoint on the road against our old play-off adversaries – especially after playing for the last 20 minutes with 10 men - is not the worst result in the world.
Charlton Athletic, with new owners, have not had a brilliant start to the season but with new signing Marcus Maddison in the squad, this could have been a problematic fixture.
Nevertheless, Sunderland ought to have been coming back home from the capital with all the spoils.
Sunderland could have and should have been out of sight long before Tom Flanagan received his marching orders.
In fact, the only thing missing from the performance was that winning goal.
The team created numerous opportunities and, bar some weak finishing and some top saves from Charlton keeper Ben Amos, a three or four-nil win would not have been flattering.
Even when down to 10 men, Sunderland still created the better chances.
It was the best performance of the season.
Everybody put in a real shift and there were some excellent combinations in Sunderland’s play.
Grant Leadbitter was terrific once again and bossed the midfield battle.
Josh Scowen showed a lot more than he did in last week’s game.
He looked energetic and linked up well with Luke O’Nien and Jordan Willis down the right. His dead ball delivery could be a strong asset going forward too.
I spoke last week about Phil
Parkinson not knowing his strongest striking partnership, and how I feel he is waiting for one of his forwards to grab the bull by the horns and force themselves into pole position.
Unfortunately, nobody has done that yet, but if the team keep creating chances like Saturday then it shouldn’t take long.
On Saturday, Parkinson decided to go with a pairing of Aiden O’Brien and Danny Graham, the same two who led the line against Oxford United a couple of weeks ago.
I was impressed with Graham. I thought he held the ball up well again and offered the team a good outlet with his allround game.
On another day he could have had a couple of goals.
Everybody will point to his glaring miss. I’m sure he will be the first to admit that he should have stuck it away, but he looked hungry from the off and I always felt like he could score a goal.
O’Brien works hard but his final ball and decision making at times let him down. I understand why Parkinson plays him - he has legs and gets around the pitch well, but for me he is playing on the periphery of things and doesn’t really look like he is going to be the answer to scoring goals for the team.
I still believe that Will Grigg and Graham should be given a start together next game.
They are the most likely two to become a prolific goalscoring threat and I feel it would only be a matter of time before they start scoring goals if the team continues to create opportunities.
I thought Grigg looked sharp when he came on and was unfortunate he had to drop a bit deeper after the Flanagan red card.