'Great effort' - Sunderland fans mull over Coventry City draw in Championship opener

Over 40,000 fans were in attendance to cheer the Wearsiders on for their first Championship game in over 1,500 days.

To mark the occasion, supporter group The Spirit of ‘37 organised a huge surfer flag in the Roker End alongside a full-stadium red and white mosaic to greet the players ahead of the clash against Coventry.

The display followed similar in last season’s play-off semi-final second leg against Sheffield Wednesday. Sunderland raced into an early lead against Coventry through Jack Clarke and ended the first half as the stronger side.

With six minutes to go in the second half, Sunderland looked to be heading towards the win before Victor Gyokeres rifled a shot past Anthony Patterson to level the scores, with the match finishing all square.

Here’s how Sunderland fans reacted to the result against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light on social media:

@antoneee_x: “Clear to see just in those last 10 minutes that Patrick Roberts needs to be starting with Trai Hume behind him.”

@SAFCBrowsing: “Great effort. Clarke, Stewart, Ballard, Pritchard, Evans all look comfortable at this level. Dan Neil not ready yet. Still a couple of League One level players. Need a first choice centre mid.”

@SunderHawks: “Lucky to take a point. Showed Coventry far too much respect in 2nd half.”

@iandobbers: “Thought we did ok, Coventry are clearly a good side. We’ll play teams here and murder them. We take it and we move on. I feel better getting a point off Coventry that I do off 10 man Gillingham.”