Inside the night Sunderland's major problems were laid bare in front of Stewart Donald and left fans fearing for the future

Where do you go from here?
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Stewart Donald has not seen much football at the Stadium of Light of late but perhaps this was a timely return. This was a performance, a defeat and a reaction that has been coming for weeks, a season drastically heading in the wrong direction laid bare right before him.

The story of the last 25 minutes can be summed up in one alarming, utterly damning statistic.

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Sunderland, behind in a crucial league game, on their home turf, could not muster a single shot at goal. The Black Cats have been unconvincing of late, to put it mildly, but this was a new low that should have alarm bells ringing in the boardroom.

Sunderland lost to Burton AlbionSunderland lost to Burton Albion
Sunderland lost to Burton Albion

No response, no fight, no quality.

In the dying moments of the contest, fans made their frustrations clear. ‘Sacked in the morning’ rang out from the Roker End and quickly took hold around the ground, the blame then shared as ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ followed.

On the pitch, the Black Cats continued to labour, Burton running down the clock with remarkable ease.

This was meant to be the season of 100 points, lessons learned and progress made. 11 games ago, Donald made the biggest call of his tenure so far. It was supposed to precede a rapid upturn in form, the baton passed to a safe pair of hands, to make this squad, one supposedly of top-two quality, League One ready once and for all.

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They have regressed to the point where the relegation spots are now closer than the top two.

Where do you go from here?

Without doubt, something shifted in those final moments and unsurprisingly so. The long and short-term issues so clearly visible for weeks now unfolded in one of the lowest moments most fans who witnessed it can recall.

Sunderland looked simply not fit for purpose. Defensively they were passive, and in midfield they were utterly overrun. They did seem to have either the means nor the will to prevent Burton breaking from the middle of the pitch, Ryan Edwards and Scott Fraser driving forward at every opportunity.

Having looked tired in the opening stages of the half, Nigel Clough’s side were suddenly rampant and a squad short on pace and power had no answer. In the end, the 2-1 scoreline flattered the hosts.

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In attack they had nothing. No identity, no pattern of play.

In Phil Parkinson’s second game in charge, they had thumped Tranmere Rovers with an enterprising performance. The Black Cats kept possession in good areas, their frontline was fluid and they moved the ball across the turf with poise and purpose.

In a matter of weeks, that confidence has evaporated and apart from a brief spell at the beginning of the second half, there was little attempt here to play with that intensity, in possession or out of it.

Sunderland created opportunities in the first half, but even then, the side on the pitch looked ill-equipped to carry out the gameplan, going back to front at the earliest opportunity in search of runners behind the defence or in the channel. Too often it was aimless and imprecise.

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Most damningly, Clough admitted his side had been well short of their best in that opening 45. On the touchline he cut a frustrated figure and in the gantry high in the stadium, his assistant fumed at passes going astray and bad decisions made in the final third.

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Yet for the most part they were rarely tested or probed by a one-dimensional opponent.

“We hadn’t played very well so it was important to go in at half-time level and then after the break we were more like our usual selves,” he said.

“We scored the winning goal and created three or four more very good situations. We also defended brilliantly and restricted them to one shot on target.

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“We hadn’t played with the sharpness and intensity we usually do in the first period. But when we raise our energy levels not a lot of teams can live with us.”

Sunderland certainly couldn’t.

Part of the visceral reaction in the stands without a doubt stems from weeks of desperately flat performances. The response to those was restrained, to a degree. They were cup games, or games in which numerous changes had been made. A chance for the manager to take a wider look at his options. The mitigating circumstances, however valid or otherwise, were gone over these two home games.

Benji Kimpioka’s late equaliser against Coventry City earned something of a reprieve, but that it had papered over a multitude of cracks was clear and laid bare just days later.

Where do you go from here?

Parkinson has resolutely and robustly defended his squad throughout a testing period but it could only hold for so long. It was, he admitted, back to the drawing board. His team, he acknowledged, had stopped playing in the final 20. No conviction, no courage on the ball.

It was an alarming admission.

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His tenure is still in its nascent stages but there has been little response from a group of players who look desperately short of confidence. The side looks more muddled and laboured than it ever did under Jack Ross and the resilience that ground out points even when performances were poor has gone.

A side that was supposed to take this division by storm is, all of a sudden, said to be in need of five new players come January. At this rate, the gap to the top two could be double figures by the time the window opens.

In truth, Sunderland are paying the price for a summer of stagnation.

If this squad looks imbalanced and incoherent then that owes much to the period of stasis that followed the play-off final, a club in limbo as rounds of takeover talks dragged on with no resolution.

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That limits any manager’s chance of success but even accounting for those shortcomings, it’s hard to comprehend where this group of players found themselves in the closing stages of this game.

So far, Donald’s early-season gamble has backfired and aside from hope of a transformation in the winter window, it’s hard to see how it changes significantly.

Where do you go from here?