Sunderland fan blog: Manchester United loanee making a big impact on Wearside

The Black Cats have been struggling over recent weeks, as their injury concerns began to mount up, whilst results haven’t necessarily been going in their favour. Most notably, Tony Mowbray’s frustration at a lack of height after a disappointing 4-2 defeat against Burnley spoke a lot about the club’s injury worries.

Only last week, after another frustrating afternoon on Wearside, the Black Cats were rather ushered out of their contest against Cardiff City – raising many questions about this side.

So, when John Eustice threw another centre-forward into the picture, you really did fear the worst for the Black Cats, and then even worse when Lukas Jutkiewicz prodded home to half the deficit for the Blues.

But, when this side’s character and resilience was tested, to a large extent, they shocked many supporters through their performance. This was far from signature Sunderland that we’ve been used to over the last couple of months, but this was effective Sunderland.

The Black Cats have learnt to adapt since their Championship return, and this was a perfect example of how they’ve done this successfully. Yet, in this performance, there were real moments of quality: Amad Diallo stepped up to the plate when it mattered, with a sensational assist to tee up Ellis Simms, before a superb burst of pace enabled Dan Neil to pick him out before a quite unbelievable finish past John Ruddy.

Like many players, Diallo is gaining his feet in the Championship, as well as his own significance and place in this starting 11. After the last few months that Tony Mowbray has had, these moments of quality has made a troubling opening to his Sunderland tenure just that bit brighter.

And, so it means the Black Cats head into their World Cup break in quite a satisfactory position. Bailey Wright and Jewison Bennette will head to Qatar with Australia and Costa Rica respectively, whilst the remaining players will regroup, head to Dubai for a winter training camp, and prepare for their return in less than three weeks.