Phil Parkinson’s reign as Sunderland manager got off to a bad start as they were beaten by high-flying Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.
It’s still early in his reign and little can be gleaned from his first fixture, with the shadow of Jack Ross’ negative play still hanging over the Black Cats. They didn’t manage a decent shot on target all afternoon and despite seeing the hosts wasting time as the minutes ebbed away, they threatened little when they did have the ball.
Wycombe manage games very well and Darius Charles gave them a lead to protect as early as the 29th minute. Gareth Ainsworth could well have been in the other dugout for this fixture, but looking at the morale of the Sunderland players, he made the right choice.
They had more possession, played more passes and passed more accurately, but the only stat that matters is goals scored and when the referee blew his whistle, that stat read ‘1-0’. One set of players were up for the fight and, sadly for Wearsiders. one set were not.
Sunderland now drop to tenth in the table, two points outside the top six albeit with matches in hand. They face Tranmere this Tuesday and nothing less than a win will be acceptable given the Prenton Park side’s appaling run of form.
As usual, the Mackems have been on social media lamenting their luck and bemoaning the size of the task facing their new manager.
Jack Ross would of drew this 1-1
— Chris Hunt (@chunty1985) October 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/Christianfors23/status/1185586088930402304
There’s not a club in England who are underperforming more than Sunderland. This club being mid table in League One smacks of years of utter mismanagement. Parkinson has a huge job on his hands.
— Graeme Field (@Fieldo100) October 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/Feeleyyyy/status/1185586110203912193
https://twitter.com/IBark3r7/status/1185586049134858240
New manager, possible new owners, same poor performance. Embarrassing.
— DV (@DVTheCoach) October 19, 2019
10th in this league is just not good enough simple !
— Paul Skinner (@PaulSkinner880) October 19, 2019
A team that included Ade Akenfenwa that beats us, Embarrassing…..
— Peter Foster (@foslar71) October 19, 2019
What a shambles
— Gerry Hughes (@fbm8665) October 19, 2019
