Sunderland fan blog: Why Jack Ross should pick this duo against Rochdale

Firstly, when the team news was announced at 2pm on Saturday, I was very surprised to see that Chris Maguire had been left out of the starting XI as I have been hugely impressed with his performances in the opening seven games of our League One campaign.

Also, I thought that Dylan McGeouch did enough to keep his place in the squad after last week’s 1-1 draw against Fleetwood Town and it was a shame he was injured.

When the match began, yet again, we had started the game on the back foot letting in two goals in the opening 37 minutes of the match.

Leading to my next point being that the moral from this match and the previous four games is that we must stop conceding early goals and be the stronger side in the whole of the 90 minutes.

It wasn’t the way Jack Ross would have wanted to introduce Maguire in the game but in the first half, he was forced into making that change, bringing the Scotsman on in place of Charlie Wyke.

I thought that he proved to the boss why he shouldn’t have been left out in the first place, scoring a superb strike.

I think that there may be a few changes for the home match against Rochdale at the Stadium of Light, with the news of Wyke’s setback.

Maguire should come back into the team with maybe Flanagan coming into the side too after sitting on the bench for the previous games.

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