Phil Parkinson’s Black Cats faced Rochdale at the Stadium of Light and his super Sunderland side produced a dominant display. The three-goal winning margin flattered the away side who managed just two attempts on goal in a one-sided game. This latest win for Parkinson’s men lifts them to fifth in the table, five points off top place.
Super Sunderland Dominate Rochdale
Game Over for Super Sunderland by Halftime
The home side cruised into a two-goal lead by the 15th minute. In form Lynden Gooch opened the scoring on 11 minutes. Chris Maguire who has rediscovered his best form supplied the cross for Gooch to steer the ball into the net. Soon after, a Rochdale defender turned another Maguire cross into his own goal.
Sunderland continued to dominate and could have been further ahead by the time their third was scored. A Luke O’Nien effort was saved, but Gooch was on hand to score from the rebound. Such was Sunderland’s dominance, the game was effectively over by this point.
The second half paled in comparison; however, Sunderland were still the better team as they saw out the game with ease. Rochdale did manage to force a save from Sunderland’s keeper McLaughlin, although the effort was straight at the Scottish international and he dealt with the shot as he would be expected too.
Another Clean Sheet
One area where Sunderland struggled under previous manager Jack Ross was goals conceded. Too many times, the Black Cats would need to outscore the opposition in order to win. This is now not the case. Goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin and his teammates have now kept six clean sheets in the last seven games.
Phil Parkinson has switched to three central defenders of late and the switch along with newfound confidence throughout the team has helped them become a tough team to score against.
Attack as a Team, Defend as a Team
Parkinson’s men are finally playing as a team and it’s showing. Results have improved significantly this year with the club now looking like automatic promotion contenders. Parkinson has his team attacking as a team. Wing backs Denver Hume and Luke O’Nien are often found high up the field. As are two of the three central defenders. Recently Tom Flanagan has been supporting Hume the oppositions half as had Jordan Willis on the other side. It is not unusual to see Willis overlapping wingback O’Nien causing havoc to the opposition defence.
As in attack, the team defend together too. Forwards Charlie Wyke, Chris Maguire and Lynden Gooch will chase and close down the ball at every available opportunity. The central midfield pair of captain Max Power and George Dobson will protect their defence with their tenacity and work rate. The back three have been able to deal with any threat that gets close to them. New signing Bailey Wright has settled in well in the heart of the defence and has shown his class.
Game Plan Worked to Perfection
Assistant manager Steve Parkin was delighted as Sunderland carried out the game plan:
“We set out a way we wanted to play today, we wanted to come out the blocks and back up the second-half performance at the weekend.”
“The lads never gave Rochdale a chance to breathe really, they were right on top of them.”
“We’re delighted with the win, the goals and the clean sheet, which is massive for us.”
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