Sunderland Vs Carlisle: Player Ratings

Vito Mannone - 8

Brilliant when called upon and commanding throughout.. Getting better and better.

Ondrej Celustka - 5

Poor. Couldn't cope with balls into the box and allowed players to get in behind him. When going forward, he was allowed plenty of space by League One opposition - and wasted it disgustingly.

Andrea Dossena - 4

Awful. Plain and simple.

Wes Brown - 8

Comfortable, as you'd probably expect. Was the one at the back who looked composed when those repeated balls into the box pressured us in the first half.

Ki Sung-Yeung - 7

Says it all when he can ill-afford to be rested despite three others getting their chance in midfield. Composed on the ball, obviously, but looked a tad uncomfortable with balls being drilled into the box.

Jack Colback - 7

Was asked to play that deep lying role and looked initially unsure when hassled by Carlisle in possession. Became steady as the game stretched, but seems unlikely to be able to ever crawl out of his comfort zone and inject some purposefulness into his game.

Seb Larsson - 6

Sigh. Regained possession a couple of times and kept things ticking over, but he's a reactive player and is simply unable to dictate a game in any fashion. Both he and Gardner failed to reappear quickly enough back into the game whenever momentarily taken out of it.

Craig Gardner - 4

Wasteful. Wasteful. Wasteful. Slow and ineffective, more so than Larsson.

Adam Johnson - 8

Took responsibility. Had to come and look for the ball when Larsson and Gardner failed to dictate or create, which left some fans frustrated at HIM...bizarrely. Great goal, too.

Ji Dong-Won - 6

Wasn't bad, wasn't great. Showed some heart.

Jozy Altidore - 6

The appalling abuse thrown at him makes me root for him. His confidence is nearly at zero and it's painful to watch at times as he fails to control or convert anything. In the second half he livened up and his link up with Ba for the goal, and Watmore in a previous move, shows what he could offer if we ever get anyone to play close enough to him.

Duncan Watmore - 7

Very enthusiastic and very raw, as most of us probably sensed he was likely to be. People in the crowd who will be roaring him into the path of four opposing Premier League defenders may be disappointed.

El-Hadji Ba  - 7

Great cameo. Looked composed and confident from his very introduction. Followed his own work to link up with a centre forward and subsequently score. Yes, really, we had a central midfielder do that.

Phil Bardsley - 6

Meh.

Man Of The Match: Adam Johnson

Purposeful and interested from the start. As with Altidore, what this lad could potentially be if he had better players to link up with brings you hope. He has had a bit of a rubbish season, before anyone accuses me of being blind.