Andy’s Player Ratings: Preston 0-3 Sunderland - Wild second half confirms playoff place!

Anthony Patterson: 7/10

Made one important save from a set piece, came out quick to deny Delap space and looked assured all afternoon.

Lynden Gooch (C): 7/10

Got stuck in on both the left and right hand side of defence and although his final ball wasn’t there, he got forward often too.

Trai Hume: 8/10

Started a little nervously but quickly grew into the game and looked solid alongside O’Nien.

Luke O’Nien: 8/10

Strong display in the middle of the defence, got shrugged off the ball a little too easily out wide by Delap but otherwise showed his experience.

Dennis Cirkin: 6/10

Was defending well at left back, without too many runs forward before taking a knock and having to go off at half-time.

Dan Neil: 8/10

Put in a massively important tackle in the first half with the score at 0-0 and Preston breaking at speed, controlled the tempo of the game in the second half and defended well in the first.

Pierre Ekwah: 9/10

Brilliant today, looked extremely confident and was great both in and out of possession.

Patrick Roberts: 7/10

Almost opened the scoring with a repeat of the goal against Watford, troubled the Preston defence whenever he had the ball.

Amad Diallo: 8/10

Showed his typical link up play with Roberts and so good at keeping hold of the ball but scored the all important opening goal with an absolute screamer into the top corner.

Jack Clarke: 8/10

Kept running at his man all afternoon, worked hard defensively too and got both a goal and an assist.

Joe Gelhardt: 7/10

Played a nice ball out wide to Clarke for the third and his general play was good but had a couple of chances where he could have done better, one where he couldn’t finish off a great flowing move and another where he let the ball under his foot when well placed. Should have had a penalty in the first half.

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Substitute

Alex Pritchard: 7/10

A really well taken goal shortly after he should have scored another and then showed his experience to help us kill the game until the full time whistle.

Joe Anderson: 6/10

Looked quite good when he came on, linking up with Clarke on the left.

Edouard Michut: 6/10

A nice short cameo by Michut, with his reliable passing helping us see the game out.

Abdoullah Ba: N/A

Only on for a short period as we wound down the clock.

Isaac Lihadji: N/A

Same as Ba.

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Man of the Match: Pierre Ekwah

Easily the best game of the young midfielder’s short senior career, looked supremely confident in the middle of the pitch. Got about the pitch defensively, quick to put a foot in, always found a team-mate with his passing and showed quality going forward too, particularly with a flowing first half move and his reverse through ball to Gelhardt really did deserve an assist.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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