Sunderland lost 2-1 to Stoke City in the FA Cup third round on Saturday afternoon in the Wearside club’s first defeat at the Stadium of Light this season.
Black Cats fans were already underwhelmed by the draw and the match itself turned out to be even more disappointing.
Regis Le Bris’ side were subpar at the beginning and end of the game, conceding two goals from sloppy mistakes.
Here are Sunderland AFC News’ player ratings, with summer signing Milan Aleksic receiving the highest score of any player.
Sunderland player ratings vs Stoke City
Simon Moore – 4/10
Anthony Patterson might not be perfect but Sunderland certainly miss him when he’s not around. Distribution is not his biggest strength but it’s definitely better than Simon Moore’s – who looked uncomfortable on the ball throughout the match. He also dived too soon for Stoke’s second goal.
Trai Hume – 7/10
Trai Hume is every manager’s dream. He is unlikely to win games for his team but the right-back is extremely consistent and rarely at fault for opposition goals. The Northern Irishman simply did his job versus Stoke.
Luke O’Nien – 5/10
Luke O’Nien’s mistakes are becoming too much of a regular occurrence. Moore probably shouldn’t have passed to him but his poor first touch and rash challenge gave away the penalty that Tom Cannon scored to put the visitors 1-0 up.
Leo Hjelde – 7/10
Leo Hjelde rarely makes Le Bris’ starting lineup but you wouldn’t have guessed that from his performance on Saturday afternoon. He looked steady and the better of the two centre-backs.
Aji Alese – 6/10
Aji Alese is no Dennis Cirkin but he’s exactly what you would expect from a backup full-back. He was slightly underwhelming going forward but didn’t do much wrong against Stoke. It’s a real shame that he went off on a stretcher in the second half.
Dan Neil – 4/10
Dan Neil didn’t have his finest game as he was partly to blame for both Stoke goals. It was a dreadful chest-high pass to Moore that put his team under pressure and led to O’Nien’s penalty-conceding challenge. And he completely missed the ball with a weak challenge in extra-time which allowed Niall Ennis to score.
Harrison Jones – 6/10
Harrison Jones was handed his first Sunderland start by Le Bris against Stoke after superb form for the Under-21 side in the Premier League 2. The 20-year-old started slowly but grew into the game until he was replaced.
Eliezer Mayenda – 7/10
Eliezer Mayenda is probably the player Sunderland fans find the most frustrating. The Spaniard has been in decent form and that continued in this game but it always feels like there’s more to come from him. He should have scored in the 68th minute.
Chris Rigg – 6/10
Chris Rigg made his return from injury against Stoke and, in all honesty, it was easy to tell he was lacking match sharpness. The youngster had some quality moments but should improve in the weeks to come.
Adil Aouchiche – 7/10
Adil Aouchiche is another player who often promises to contribute more than he does. However, the former Paris Saint-Germain man delivered against Stoke. He threatened the goal with a powerful first-half shot and crucially assisted the equalising goal.
Aaron Connolly – 6/10
Any striker will tell you that it’s hard to find form when opportunities are limited but Aaron Connolly needs to do more to put any pressure on Wilson Isidor for the starting ‘number nine’ spot. The Ireland international had a few efforts but failed to make much of an impact.
Substitutes
Zak Johnson – 6/10
Zak Johnson replaced the injured Alese in the second half. Hjelde and Hume shifted across to left-back and centre-back, respectively. Johnson did okay at right-back.
Milan Aleksic – 8/10
Milan Aleksic scored with his first touch after Le Bris introduced him to the game – a simply right-footed finish to the goalkeeper’s left.