Michael Beale renders a verdict regarding Sunderland’s loss to Huddersfield Town and responds to a query about inconsistency.
On Wednesday night, Sunderland was defeated 1-0 by Huddersfield Town, a disappointing result.
After suffering a costly loss to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night, Michael Beale lamented Sunderland’s set piece defense.
Beale admitted his side fell short in the first half, with Matty Pearson turning in the rebound from Jack Rudoni’s free kick. Despite their struggles to generate genuine opportunities and put Lee Nicholls to the test throughout the game, Beale acknowledged that the Black Cats had some moments where they could have done better.
“It was a wild second half after a quite average first half,” Beale said.
“We conceded again from a set play away from home and that’s not good enough. There’s a bit of deja vu there, are we quite alive to them getting a shot off and then the second ball. Just before the half time whistle, we had two set piece situations and we weren’t as alive and reactive. We knew what to expect here because Jon [Worthington] has got them going and got the crowd up. They were up and at it in the first half and our midfield wanted one too many touches on the ball, we had some issues with their energy in the first half.
“We tried to gamble more in the second half and it made for a really open game – we certainly had opportunities. Trai had a big chance, their keeper makes an incredible save after, Paddy gets down the side and crosses it – where were we?! Then a corner to the back post, they’re big moments.”
Even though Sunderland has not been able to put on a strong show for the full 90 minutes in recent weeks, they managed to win against Plymouth and Middlesbrough. Beale stated that his players need to perform better in crucial situations and that the main cause of the games’ degree of inconsistency was the slight disparity in skill levels between the teams.
“On our best day, I think we can slightly better than the opposition but we’re not going to blow anyone away, we don’t score enough goals from the nine position to do that,” Beale said.
“There’s not much between the teams, the game goes in waves and when our tails are up, we have to take our chances. In a tight game, we need to be scoring from a set play and not conceding them. It’s natural to come away from home when their crowd are up – you’re going to have difficult moments in the game. It’s a pretty standard set play we’ve conceded from, we opened up in the second half and had our moments. Then we have a bit of a disaster when Paddy has to come off and we play with ten, so it’s a bad night for us.”
Tenth-place Sunderland ended the evening just one point outside the play-off spots, though, as Coventry City twice came back to earn a 2-2 draw away at Plymouth Argyle.