ROSS HAILS ‘VOCAL’ STAR CATTERMOLE
Midfielder’s goal earns share of spoils
ALEE Cattermole strike secured Sunderland a share of the spoils at Coventry and earned him the praise of boss Jack Ross in the process.
The all-action midfielder struck his third goal of the season early in the second half, which was eventually cancelled out by Jonson Clarke-Harris, but a booking before the interval was his fifth in seven games and will force him to miss the midweek clash with Peterborough.
“It will be a blow missing him, but we’re not going to take that side of his game away – it’s always been there and always will be,” said Black Cats boss Ross.
“You see someone now who is enjoying their football. He likes the environment and the one thing is that he has genuine desire for the club to progress up the levels. It is nice he is scoring goals because it obviously creates more attention, but his allround play has been good as well.
“You don’t get into those areas without desire. Technically he has quality so when he gets into that area you do fancy him and I think he fancies himself now.
“Lee is vocal in the changing room and makes demands of others. He cares an awful lot about football and that’s the one thing that’s interesting to me – he just loves to play and wants to do well. He has that drive and he pulls other players along as well.
“We are disappointed every time we don’t win because it comes with expectations when you manage or play for this club. But we’ve pointed out to the players that they should be proud of what they’ve had to go through – it was a tough game away from home.”
The Black Cats chalked up the only chance of note in a drab opening period when Chris Maguire, who had a spell on loan at the Ricoh, crashed a free-kick against a post, with skipper George Honeyman putting the rebound over the bar.
But there was no shortage of action after the break once Cattermole had stamped his mark on the game with a cool finish after 49 minutes after being left unmarked 15 yards out following good work on the right by Adam Matthews.
The goal seemed to breathe life into the home side and both Luke Thomas and Conor Chaplin missed chances, before visiting keeper Jon McLaughlin did well to keep out back-to-back Clarke-Harris efforts and another Thomas chance.
City were having the better of things and were finally rewarded after 68 minutes when a low cross from Dujon Sterling picked out Clarke-Harris, who steered his shot past the keeper to nestle in the bottom corner.
A frenzied finale saw home keeper Lee Burge produce an outstanding save to deny Honeyman a Sunderland winner while, down the other end, a break from Chaplin saw him denied by a combination of a McLaughlin save and a Matthews clearance.
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins admitted he was frustrated not to have won the game late on.
He said: “I thought we finished strong and I’m disappointed not to come away with a win.
“The clear-cut chance we had was just what we wanted and I expected to see that hit the back of the net. Then you come away with all three [points] and you are really happy because they are a really good side – the best side we’ve played. They are certainly going to be up there this season.
“Cattermole started to get involved in the game too much and that one player is the equivalent of our budget. We could hold our heads up high because I thought we went toe-to-toe to try to win the game.
“The supporters were fantastic so there was a lot of good things from the game.”