Sunderland were held to a draw against bottom-place Rotherham United this evening.
Sunderland picked up their first win under Michael Beale last time out, narrowly beating Hull City thanks to another superb goal from Jack Clarke.
The Black Cats hadn’t particularly wowed fans in either opening fixture in Beale’s early tenure, and things there wasn’t much improvement on their trip to the New York Stadium either.
In another match played without a striker, the Wearside outfit looked out of ideas from the off and came close to another defeat as Rotherham netted a stunner early into the second half.
Sunderland were rescued from their lack of creativity by Jack Clarke once again, whose shot took a lucky deflection and handed them the equaliser and his second goal in two games.
The draw in Yorkshire pushes them out of the Championship play-off spots into seventh place, handing Beale his fourth point in three matches since his appointment.
Here are our player ratings after a dull day in Rotherham…
Sunderland player ratings vs Rotherham
Anthony Patterson – 7
The goalkeeper didn’t have a great lot to do in the second half and couldn’t do much about their goal. He did exceptionally well when he pulled off a block to deny the opener, before making two brilliant back-to-back saves straight after.
Trai Hume – 6
The full-back had a fairly quiet evening at Rotherham but hasn’t looked quite as affective under Michael Beale.
I miss those thunderous tackles that would make the crowd roar.
Luke O’Nien – 7
The 29-year-old was our best defender this evening.
O’Nien made an impressive seven tackles, three clearances and won seven headers, while he also came close to scoring two absolute screamers.
Jenson Seelt – 6
Jenson Seelt didn’t look quite as comfortable as he has in previous games, though I thought he was a lot more solid in the first half than the second. I would still really like to see the Dutchman in his natural position in the centre of defence.
Pierre Ekwah – 6
I was hoping for another positive performance after impressing against Hull, but he looked far from his best tonight. It’s hard to tell which Ekwah you are going to get these days.
Dan Neil – 6
I thought he was better than Ekwah and had a positive impact in the first half, but seemed to be all out of ideas and struggled to impress.
Jobe Bellingham – 5
He looked better in the second half but I didn’t really understand why we felt the need to keep him on when he was on a yellow card.
Jobe just likes tired and lacking in confidence – far from the player he was when he first joined Sunderland.
Adil Aouchiche – 5
Aouchiche looked really good when he came on against Hull, but it is no surprise that he struggled leading the line tonight. Another terrible decision by Beale.
Patrick Roberts – 5
Wasn’t able to do much before he was forced off with an injury, though I think we would have had a lot more luck on the attack if he had stayed on the pitch.
Jack Clarke – 7
Definitely our man of the match. The winger looked like our only real threat and constantly troubled their defence. It was no surprise that he managed to claim the goal, even if it was a deflection.
Abdoullah Ba – 4
Would have picked a number of different players to have replaced Patrick Roberts rather than Ba. He looked extremely poor until he was moved into the middle and looked a little better.
Mason Burstow – 4
Extremely isolated up front. We seemed to put a lot more effort in getting the ball up to the striker when we didn’t actually have a striker on the pitch.
Alex Pritchard – 7
As usual, Sunderland looked much more threatening with the midfielder on the pitch. It’s baffling that we don’t start him.
Timothee Pembele – 6
He didn’t exactly light up the pitch, but he didn’t do much wrong either. You could tell he hasn’t played senior football since March.