Sunderland 1-2 Bristol City: Match Report & Player Ratings live from the Stadium of Light

Sunderland 1-2 Bristol City

Hopeless Sunderland lost yet again at the Stadium of Light today, this time against high-fliers Bristol City.

Despite playing some decent stuff, Simon Grayson’s side were sloppy defensively and made it easy for Lee Johnson’s side, who went ahead twice on their route to victory.

Lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Simon Grayson named an unchanged back five, with Lee Cattermole and George Honeyman dropping out in place of Darron Gibson and Jonny Williams.

Despite starting relatively well, Sunderland went behind after some poor goalkeeping by Steele and some odd defending from Lamine Kone led to 5’7 forward Bobby Reid heading in from a corner.

Though they went 1-0 down, Grayson’s side persevered and were eventually rewarded for their decent play with an equaliser just before half time, a scruffy goal that was eventually tucked away by Lewis Grabban.

In the second period Sunderland laboured on but some sloppy defending from Billy Jones led to Bristol scoring their second, another header - this time from Milan Djuric.

In truth, we didn’t play too badly in patches but it was yet another defeat against a side that didn’t have to work very hard for their victory.

Surely, even now, Simon Grayson is on the thinnest of thin ice when it comes to his job.

Player Ratings

Jason Steele, 2/10: Horrendous for Reid’s header in the first half. Struggled with his decision making and kicking, and really should have been dropped.

Bryan Oviedo, 8/10: Very good. He can hold his head high after that performance. Was unlucky not to score late in the game after his shot was cleared off the line.

John O’Shea, 6/10: Did his job, I suppose.

Lamine Kone, 2/10: Suspect for the first and then dragged a mile out of position for their second due to the bad positioning of Jones.

Billy Jones, 2/10: Abysmal all afternoon again and a mile out of position for their second goal. What does Grayson see in him?

Darron Gibson, 4/10: Slow, slack, sloppy. Looked knackered at half time.

Didier Ndong, 6/10: Got stuck in as per usual but his final ball was lacking.

Jonny Williams, 6/10: Moved the ball well. Doesn’t really have a cutting edge though.

Aiden McGeady, 4/10: Thought that he was wasteful and struggled to impact on the game.

Duncan Watmore, 6/10: Grafted like mad but got absolutely nothing off the referee all afternoon.

Lewis Grabban, 5/10: Other than scoring he was poor.

(SUB) Callum McManaman, 5/10: Barely touched the ball.

(SUB) Paddy McNair, 5/10: Should have came on at half time for Gibson. Was too late by the time he came on.

(SUB) James Vaughan, 5/10: See McNair. Their defenders had it easy with Grabban and at 1-1 we’d have had a chance at winning if we’d at least tried to combat them with a striker that can get stuck in.

Man of the Match: Bryan Oviedo.