Match Stats

Own Goal Sees Sunderland Beat Alex

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Luke Offord’s own goal in the final minute of the first-half was enough for Sunderland to defeat Crewe Alexandra at the Stadium of Light last night, a result that saw the hosts remain in the play-off spots in 5th place.

Manager David Artell made one change from Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Blackpool with Oliver Finney replacing Callum Ainley in midfield, the latter dropping down to the bench.

The opening chance of the game came in the 13th minute with Charlie Wyke firing over before Chris Maguire would curl a 30-yard free-kick wide 12 minutes later. Max Power would see an effort saved by Jaaskelainen before the goal came in stoppage-time in the opening period as Offord would divert Lynden Gooch’s right-sided cross into the Alex net under pressure from Wyke.

The first chance for the visitors came in the 5th minute after the break with Finney getting in behind the host’s right side unable to square it for a Daniel Powell tap-in before Power would fire over from the edge of the area a few minutes later. Bailey Wright would head over from close range midway in the half from a Chris Maguire free-kick while Jaaskelainen would also make a point-blank save from Gooch with his face with a little over 15 minutes to play.

The next games for the Alex see us travel to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday before we return home to face Lincoln City next Tuesday night.

What can we take out of this game?

We were second best for most of the night if I’m being fair, just showing the difference between the League 2 teams that we were playing last season and one of the teams that should be competing for the promotion spots at the end of this one.

Both full-backs struggled against the 3-5-2 that Sunderland played where both of their wing-backs Gooch and Denver Hume would take very wide starting positions (even when the ball was on the other side of the pitch) while we couldn’t keep the ball well enough and would resort to going long with the ball coming straight back.

At least there will be easier games to come in the coming weeks that we can compete better in.

Sunderland
1 – 0
Crewe Alexandra

Stadium of Light

League 1

20/10/2020 7:00 pm

Attendance: 0

Referee: Neil Hair

Sunderland Crewe Alexandra
Offord og
Burge Jaaskelainen
 
McLaughlin Ng
 
Wright Beckles
O'Nien Offord
Gooch 87 Pickering
Power Murphy
Leadbitter Wintle
 
Scowen 84 Finney 67
Hume Powell 57
Maguire 74 Mandron
Wyke Kirk 82

Substitutes

Matthews Richards
Flanagan 87 Lowery
Dobson 84 Porter 82
O'Brien 74 Ainley 67
Graham Zanzala
Diamond Dale 57
Grigg Johnson

Game Statistics

20 Goal attempts 4
7 On Target 1
10 Corners 3
14 Fouls 15
0 Yellow Cards 3
0 Red Cards 0
51 % 49

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