Ex-PSG star sees red as five Sunderland first-team players suffer Under-21’s derby defeat to Middlesbrough

Edouard Michut was shown a red card for Sunderland Under-21’s against Middlebrough on Friday night as he continues his injury comeback trail.

The side were already a goal down thanks to a first-half Calum Kavanagh goal before Michut was shown two yellow cards within minutes to reduce the Black Cats to ten men.

Michut’s first booking came after an alleged cynical foul before he pulled back Boro winger Joe Gibson on the edge of the box.

The former PSG man, who is yet to feature for the first-team, was given his marching orders before the misery was compounded as Boro doubled their lead from the resulting free-kick.

It was a disappointing night for the Black Cats who were captained by Bailey Wright as he looks to get minutes in the tank ahead of his return to the first-team fold.

New signing Alex Bass featured in goal whilst Leon Dajaku and Jay Matete also played 90 minutes at Heritage Park.

Under-21 Lead Coach John Hewitson believes his side didn’t get their slice of luck on the night and admitted Michut’s red card changed the complexion of the match.

Hewitson said: “I don’t think we tested their goalkeeper enough tonight, and individual errors did cost us in the end.

“We created a few chances and competed more in the second half, but then the red card and straight away the second goal killed the game really.

“When we were 1-0 down, we started to get our tails up and got into the ascendancy, and at the other end Alex Bass made a good save to keep it at just the one goal. But, like I say, it was that sort of double-whammy of the decision to send Edou off and then the deflected free-kick going in which put it out of our reach.”

He added: “We’ve got plenty of games coming up, so it’s just about ensuring that the boys take on board what has been said to them by us as staff.”

Michut, Wright, Dajaku, Matete and Bass will all be hoping they are involved in Tony Mowbray’s first-team plans when Sunderland host Preston North End next weekend.