Dan Ballard endured a very mixed afternoon in Sunderland’s 3-0 defeat to Newcastle United.
Sunderland headed into the FA Cup third round clash as massive underdogs and went onto put on a display that made the gulf between the two clubs abundantly clear.
The Black Cats looked ramped up and ready for battle in the first half an hour or so, but the poor judgement from Trai Hume allowed Anthony Gordon to put the ball on a plate for their opener.
Sunderland gradually started to look worse as the game went in, giving the ball away and making some very poor decisions.
It was then individual mistakes that caused a capitulation, with Pierre Ekwah gifting them their second, before Dan Ballard gave away penalty towards full-time.
The 24-year-old had shown sparks of the Premier League centre-back that he will one day become, but it was Ballard that was given the own goal for their first, before handing them the third to close off the game.
Despite a poor performance on paper for Ballard, Sunderland Echo journalist Phil Smith actually heaped praise on the defender before his ‘really poor decision’.
After giving him a 5/10 rating, Smith wrote: “Had a brilliant first half until the unfortunate own goal that he could do nothing about as Isak lurked to score over his shoulder. Was Sunderland’s best player until a really poor decision to foul Gordon in the last minute, which he didn’t need to do.”
Did Dan Ballard do us proud?
Dan Ballard is undeniably a Premier League defender in the making, and at times today that was very obvious.
The Arsenal academy product did look pretty solid at the back for much of the game – making four clearances, three tackles, one block and winning 100% of his aerial duels.
Ballard was unfortunate for his own goal, with Alexander Isak almost guaranteed to tuck it away if he hadn’t got to it anyway. The foul for the penalty was poor but clearly out of frustration, with Jack Clarke being the initial culprit to give the ball away in the first place.
It was an all-round poor performance from a Championship side against a team that were just knocked out of the Champions League, but Ballard shouldn’t be too disheartened. If Newcastle can make even Clarke look terrible, then what hope have we got? At least it might put off Premier League clubs wanting him though…
On to Ipswich!