Two Up, Two Down: Our writers react to Sunderland’s defeat at the hands of Coventry City

Two Up, Two Down: Our writers react to Sunderland’s defeat at the hands of Coventry City

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Gav says…

The international break is here

The biggest positive to draw from that shitshow is that the much-needed international break is now here, as we’ve got injuries, we’ve got tiredness, we’ve got mental fatigue, and we need to sort that out.

The majority of the players will either be flying off to other countries or forming part of a smaller group at the Academy of Light, which is much-needed so that they can all reconvene after they’ve played for their countries and completely refocus on the task at hand.

Jenson Seelt is back

It’s nice to see big Jenson back in a first team game after such a long time out injured. He didn’t do himself any harm either, playing fairly well.

If Dennis Cirkin is going to be out, we’ll probably need him over the coming months so let’s hope he’s fully recovered and ready to feature.

£37... for that

I feel sorry for anyone who paid thirty seven quid to watch that shite.

I normally stick up for the lads because you can see they’re trying, but we didn’t try anywhere near as hard as Coventry, who simply wanted it more.

For a sold out away end, that’s not good enough and I hope the players reflect on that. If we want to get promoted, we can’t have any more days like that between now and the summer.

Patto...again

Anthony Patterson is lucky the club didn’t sign any proper competition, because at the minute he’s playing awfully and without confidence.

He was naff for all three goals in my opinion, and for all of them he made it very easy for Haji Wright.

For the first, he took ages to get down despite being on that side of the goal; he dove early for the penalty and then came absolutely flying out for no reason for the third, making it simple as Wright dinked it over him.

Not good enough.

Calum Mills says…

Jenson Seelt returns

Seelt’s back playing first team football, almost a year after tearing his ACL against Southampton last season.

Welcome back!

The fans show their support

Fair play to any Sunderland fan who stuck around until the final whistle — be it in the stadium or watching it on television.

Another injury for Dennis Cirkin

It was a real shame to see Cirkin go down and off with what appeared to be a reoccurence of his hamstring troubles.

For our sake, I hope it’s a quick fix and that he’s back for the last few games and increasingly likely, the playoffs.

Sunderland’s confidence takes a hit

Since drawing with Burnley and losing to Leeds with the last kick of the game, we’ve looked a shadow of our former selves.

For the players who aren’t representing their countries, the international break should be used to reflect on how far we’ve actually come this season.

We should rewatch the games we dominated and try to regain some of the feel good factor we had from one of the many games where we went behind but ended up winning (Swansea away).

The Lads need to come back firing after the break. The teams below us are winning and reducing a sizable gap, so we can’t afford any more slip ups.

Malc Dugdale says…

Minutes for Jenson Seelt

It was disappointing to see Dennis Cirkin injured again but when Seelt came on, he did OK and it was good to see him back.

With Dan Ballard out for a while yet, we need some defensive depth and even more so with Cirkin showing his fragility. Welcome back to Jenson, though.

A sobering afternoon for the Lads

We were poor, but in a weird way it drew a line under the possibility of automatic promotion as well as demonstrating that we need to step right up and do way better than the last couple of games if we’re serious about progressing to Wembley.

Sometimes you need a kick up the arse to realise where you’re at.

If the team and the coaches don’t take the right things away and use them to initiate a major reset of attitude and application, they don’t deserve to get anywhere near the national stadium.

A thoroughly stodgy away display

We went back to some of our worst levels of performance yesterday and it was very frustrating to watch the team struggle to do anything other than pass sideways and backwards.

Our forwards were poor with the half chances we did get; our midfield was non-existent and lost every battle and second ball, our wide men were totally ineffective and our defence let in three goals which Coventry fully deserved and scored without really having to try very hard at all.

It was great to catch up with the other Midlands exiles and to have a few beers, and we’ll enjoy the same when we get together for International Fans’ Day in April, but we have to hope when we reconvene again we get a better spectacle.

Concerns for Régis Le Bris to address

The players were poor but given that Coventry bossed the whole game so comprehensively, we have to ask if the tactics and setup were right.

I’ve rarely seen our midfield so ineffective — Jobe did literally nothing for about 85 of the 95 mins, and Dan Neil deserved to be hooked when he was.

When I saw that Chris Rigg was to start, I hoped he’d be the extra man in the middle who would create and battle, but we were no better than at home to Preston, with two men totally overrun.

This is a big test for Le Bris, who needs to show that he can reinvigorate the team and get some confidence, shape and craft back into the side.

He’s enjoyed the season and done well so far but now’s the time to prove he has the coaching prowess to lift a flat and underperforming squad, and get them in optimal physical and mental shape for the playoffs.

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