Sunderland suffered yet another defeat in the Championship on Saturday, but a couple of players had decent games.
Sunderland remain in 11th place of the Championship table after a 4-2 defeat vs Southampton on Saturday.
And the gap to the bottom three remains nine points, though the gap to the top six now stands at 11, with the Black Cats all but definitely playing in the Championship again next season.
Mike Dodds‘ side sprung a surprising comeback at St Mary’s, scoring two second half goals through Romaine Mundle and Jobe Bellingham after conceding twice before the break.
But a quickfire Joe Rothwell brace eventually won the game for Southampton.
Romaine Mundle bags first Sunderland goal
Mundle not only bagged his first Sunderland goal against Southampton, but his first ever senior goal too.
It was rather lucky though, with his striker taking a deflection and leaving Southampton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu with very little he could do.
After the goal, Mundle looked like he had a new lease of life.
It certainly looked as though it gave him a confidence boost and he started to play with less fear, showing some nice touches and passes, albeit without doing very much to unsettle the Southampton defence.
Sunderland Echo rated his performance 6/10, with journalist Phil Smith adding:
“Scored a very good goal to launch Sunderland’s brief comeback, leaving Bazunu with no chance from the edge of the area. Put in a couple of good crosses in the first half that no one was there to attack. Definitely has some quality.”
As per Sofascore, Mundle completed 10 out of 13 passes (77% completion), winning 2 out of 7 duels, with 1 out of 4 dribbles completed and 2 shots on target.
Mundle’s time to shine
Mundle was no doubt brought in to ease the blow of Jack Clarke leaving in the summer.
But with Clarke injured, Mundle has had to step up sooner than planned, and it’s certainly not an easy time for the 20-year-old to try and up his game.
Sunderland are in a rotten vein of form and there’s increasing noise surrounding some poor management of the club.
But now that Mundle has his first goal, it’ll hopefully take some pressure of his shoulders and he can now start to play with freedom.
That’s exactly what Clarke does, and Mundle showed against Southampton that he boasts similar dribbling skills and a forward-thinking Mindset, though he still has a long way to go.
There’s 10 games of the season left now and with the play-offs out of sight, Dodds should use these games to give players like Mundle the experience they need to develop, so that Sunderland can be in better nick come the start of next season.
The Black Cats though need to be wary of getting sucked into a relegation scrap, with a tricky home game vs QPR on the cards next weekend.