Player Ratings & Comments - Miserable Sunderland held back by stragglers

It was a game that summed up the last season and a half of Stewart Donald's tenure as majority shareholder quite fittingly, the pitch felt like a shocking symbol of recent cost cuts and neglect. The performance was that of a squad pieced together through a lack of a strategy and plan.

It is true that we were better than Plymouth for much of the game. But it is also true that we struggled to create significant opportunities, missed the few we did create and looked incredibly vulnerable to the rare Plymouth forray forward.

The game was a chance to capitalise on the win over Wimbledon and move into the play-offs, within six points of automatic promotion and perhaps we can take solace from how tight the league is at the moment and that we are still in with a shout.

Lee Johnson was unsympathetic towards his players and you sense some cages will be getting rattled this week.

What did you make of the player performances? Who are the obvious weaklinks in our 11 that are holding us back from a promotion push? You can have your say in the only interactive Sunderland player ratings feature, by scrolling down and selecting a rating. You can also leave a comment which will help us with our future content, plus we always enjoy reading them!