The warning sign for club hierarchy on worrying afternoon: Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC conclusions

Sunderland ended their six-game losing run with a 0-0 draw against QPR on Saturday afternoon, but it was far from a vintage performance at the Stadium of Light.

Here’s Phil’s key conclusions from the game…

SUNDERLAND DESTINED FOR MID-TABLE FINISH 

With eight games to go, Sunderland sit thirteen points adrift of the top six and nine points clear of the bottom three. We can now say with almost certainty that this campaign will finish in midtable.

Anthony Patterson’s excellence meant that Sunderland at least ended their losing run, and probably drew a line under any sense of growing panic that they risked being drawn into an unlikely relegation battle. Given the number of teams below them and the form of those at the bottom, they probably already have enough points on the board and one win will certainly do it. With Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts likely to have four or five games before the campaign ends, they’ll get that.

So there was a little bit of relief here, amid the bitter disappointment. But it does leave Sunderland facing up to something they have arguably not had since the 2010/11 season: a run-in where there is next to nothing to play for. Given their position at the start of December, it’s an extraordinary collapse and can fundamentally be pinned down to two key decisions: sacking Tony Mowbray without securing a high-calibre successor and failing to correct last summer’s transfer shortcomings in the January transfer window.

This point probably means that Sunderland will be able to edge through to the end of the campaign without need for further change, but it is now a campaign destined to end as a major missed opportunity.

RESULT BRINGS SOME RELIEF - BUT NOT THE PERFORMANCE

The result was just about the only positive for Sunderland, this performance was arguably a new low in a campaign that many are now quite looking forward to being over. 

There is no doubt that injury and suspension issues are having a major impact on Sunderland, not just in the final third but all over the pitch. It was particularly noticeable in a reshuffled defence on Saturday, Sunderland side too ponderous and too disjointed when trying to play out from the back.

There may be some mitigating factors but it was quite simply a sad experience to watch a team that have so enthralled over the past 18 months produce so little - not even registering a shot on target across 95 minutes of football. QPR are much improved under Marti Cifuentes and Mike Dodds had rightly noted their improved defensive structure since his mid-season arrival, but this Sunderland side is a pale imitation of the one that soared to sixth last season and looked so competitive through the first half of this one. Even in the rare moments where they broke into promising positions, they lacked the quality or conviction to capitalise. 

There were audible outbreaks of laughter when the attendance was revealed in the final ten minutes of the game, with a reasonable number of regulars clearly deciding to do something else with their Saturday afternoon. Many more would leave before the full time whistle, with the balance of play as such that only the visitors truly looked like scoring. While Sunderland continued to labour, QPR’s substitutions and Sinclair Armstrong in particular brought a real injection of intensity and energy that almost got them over the line.

The apathy that engulfed this ground (rightly and entirely understandably) for large parts of the should be setting alarm bells ringing in the Sunderland hierarchy. Next season, supporters will expect a squad strong enough to compete for a place in the top six across 46 games and that will require a tweak to the transfer strategy. Many of these youngsters have real potential but at the moment the gap between the established players and those finding their feet at the level is too great to deal with the rigours of a Championship campaign. The endeavour and application is there, but the quality and consistency is not.

It simply won’t be sustainable for a club of this size to produce performances of this level in their third season back in the Championship. There really is a huge amount on the line this summer, and the club hierarchy simply have to get it right.

SHORT-TERM ASSISTANCE IS ON THE WAY - BUT SUMMER BUSINESS WILL BE VITAL 

It was another difficult afternoon for Dodds, who admitted afterwards that he was more disappointed with this performance than any of the previous four defeats he had overseen. He has shown an admirable desire to try and give the club’s young strikers opportunities but his double substitution ten minutes into the second half was recognition that his attacking combinations had again not worked. 

The interim head coach can see some light at the end of the tunnel, with Bradley Dack returning to the bench here and both Corry Evans and Aji Alese likely to join him at Cardiff. While Clarke and Patrick Roberts are unlikely to make that game, they should not be too far behind. That should at least make the final few games of the campaign a more palatable prospect but it also underlines the importance of the summer transfer window. If Clarke does depart as seems highly likely, then Sunderland will simply have to replace him with a player (or players) capable of making an impact at this level from day one. They look unlikely to mount a play-off push if they do not.