Jack’s not all right with Sunderland’s defensive displays

Posted Sunday, January 20, 2019 by PA

Boss Jack Ross fears Sunderland’s inability to keep clean sheets could end up costing them automatic promotion after a late Scunthorpe equaliser meant they had to settle for a third successive 1-1 draw.

While Josh Maja’s near-post header just before the hour mark maintained the Black Cats’ impressive record of having scored in every Sky Bet League One match this season, Adam Hammill’s brilliant late strike saw the Iron claim a deserved point.

Ross, whose side have now kept a clean sheet in just two of their last 11 games, said: “We didn’t deserve to win the game in terms of our performance – but having got ourselves ahead and looked reasonably comfortable, we should have won it.

“At the moment we’re having to score two goals to win games and we shouldn’t have to do that. Collectively we have to be better when we’re in a winning position.

“We haven’t kept enough clean sheets this season and that isn’t just aimed at the defenders and goalkeeper, it’s aimed at all of us – me and my staff included.

“We need to get better because that could be the thing that decides whether we get what we want from this season or not.

“We’re still in an all right position, but we’ve missed out on opportunities recently because of our inability to keep a clean sheet.”

Having gone into the game on the back of four successive wins, Scunthorpe played with confidence and squandered two good first-half openings – Jon McLaughlin saving from George Thomas and James Perch heading over from just a few yards out from the resulting corner.

Sunderland were more of a threat after the break and went ahead just before the hour mark when Maja headed home his 16th goal of the campaign from Reece James’ cross.

Yet just when they looked to have ground out a victory, Hammill marked his debut with a stunning strike, curling into the top corner from the edge of the box.

Iron boss Stuart McCall said: “It would have been an absolute travesty if we hadn’t got something out of the game, but I suppose when you get to three minutes to go and you’re 1-0 down, you take a point.

“I was really pleased with our performance in the first half. We created three excellent chances and went in at half-time a little bit aggrieved not to be ahead.

“The only disappointment of the whole game was we switched off for one second and let Maja across us to score. Other than that, we’ve kept a good side really quiet.

“But we kept going and it was a fantastic strike from Hammy – it deserved to win a game but we’ll take the point.

“Our all-round performance should give us confidence going forward. The lads are in a good place, as they should be when they’re playing at the top of their game.”