Jimmy’s Player Ratings: Sunderland 1-0 Shrewsbury - Wyke header hands the Lads a vital victory

Lee Burge: 6/10

His poor clearance which led to an excellent Leon Clarke chance inspired the visitors and completely shifted the momentum of the game. Burge went some way to redeeming himself with a decent one-on-one save to deny Harry Chapman.

Max Power: 6/10

Guilty of a couple concentration lapses that led to poor passes putting his teammates under pressure, but overall this was a solid unspectacular performance.

Jordan Willis: 5/10

Improved after a shaky opening 15. Willis looked out-of-sorts giving away a cheap foul in a dangerous area five-minutes in and his early passing was nervy. We did see better out of Willis as the game wore on, including a few trademark towering headers.

Bailey Wright: 5/10

Concerningly, despite Sunderland dominating large swathes of the game, there were a few notably dodgy moments from our defensive leader. Wright failed to cut out a soft ball which could easily have led to an equaliser and was burned easily by Chapman, allowing him through on goal.

Callum McFadzean: 5/10

After managing to breeze through the first-half unnoticed, McFadzean had major difficulties in the second. He struggled with his positioning and was exposed one-on-one a few times.

Grant Leadbitter: 6/10

At half-time it looked like we were going to get the best performance we’ve seen from Leadbitter in at least a month. The club captain looked assured and confident in the middle, his long range passing was on point too.

Annoyingly he regressed in the second period. When Sunderland needed to match Shrewsbury’s increased aggression he was too casual, giving away the ball carelessly.

Josh Scowen: 6/10

Still concedes possession too often, but much improved. Scowen’s aggression was brilliant, he won a series of 50-50s and looks to building chemistry with his fellow midfielders.

Jack Diamond: 5/10

Showed no quality in the final third sadly. Diamond’s decision-making and crossing was poor, and he botched a brilliant goal-scoring chance too, opting for an overhit cross instead of shooting on goal when free in the Shrewsbury area.

Aiden McGeady: 6/10

Like Diamond, McGeady’s play in the final third was largely disappointing, where McGeady separated himself from the youngster is, he did lay on Wyke’s opener with a teasing near post cross.

Aiden O’Brien: 5/10

Another who had a lot of the ball in good areas and didn’t show the quality required. O’Brien could have played Wyke in, but ended up mishitting a cross beyond McGeady instead.

Charlie Wyke: 7/10

Miles better than Tuesday, his headed finish was excellent, his hold up was decent, if only he’d steadied himself, to double our lead, after rounding the goalkeeper.

(SUB) Chris Maguire: 5/10

Like a lot of Maguire’s cameos in recent weeks, he was largely uninvolved and struggled to impact the game positively.

(SUB) Carl Winchester: n/a

Came on to sure things up ten minutes from full-time.

(SUB) Luke O’Nien: n/a

Made his first team return just before stoppage time.

Man of the Match

Charlie Wyke