Manchester United loanee shows intentions, Edouard Michut's absence and Sunderland’s frustrations at Swansea

Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson came up for a corner, before Jack Clarke was booked for diving in the box in front of the 2,000 away fans.

Yet despite a frantic end to the game, which saw both managers making complaints to the officials, Sunderland left South Wales with nothing.

Here are some of the moments you may have missed:

Aji Alese’s change of shirt

Defender Aji Alese was making his fifth consecutive start for Sunderland and produced another admirable display for the Black Cats.

The 21-year-old has shown he can cope with the physical side of the game, and was certainly in the thick of things during a tough first half for the visitors.

Midway through the opening 45 minutes Alese needed to change his shirt after it was ripped by an opposition player.

The Black Cats defender didn’t even receive a free-kick for a shirt pull!

Anthony Patterson’s let off

Sunderland have made it clear they will try and play out from the back when possible, especially with no recognised strikers to take a more direct approach.

And while Black Cats goalkeeper Patterson has made some fine saves in recent matches, and produced another admirable performance here, there have been times when he’s almost been caught out.

At 2-1 against Swansea, the Sunderland keeper tried to play the ball over to Lynden Gooch on the right, yet his attempted pass was cut out by Swans striker Joel Piroe.

Fortunately for the visitors, that allowed Danny Batth to get in between the striker and the ball to win a free-kick. Patterson was quick to apologise.

Amad’s intentions to shoot

Following Sunderland’s draw with Blackpool on Tuesday, head coach Tony Mowbray urged Amad to take more shots at goal.

The Manchester United loanee had to settle for a place on the bench at Swansea, but came on with 13 minutes remaining.

In that time the 20-year-old registered more shots than anyone else on the pitch with three attempts in total.

Only one of those efforts was on target, though, and was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Steven Benda.

Dennis Cirkin returns to the bench

While Mowbray made one change to his starting XI, with Dan Neil replacing Amad, defender Dennis Cirkin returned to the matchday squad.

The former Tottenham man had missed the side’s last four games after picking up a hamstring issue during the defeat at Middlesbrough, but was an unused substitute here.

Jay Matete also returned to the squad, as Leon Dajaku and Edouard Michut weren’t included in the matchday 18 despite travelling with the squad to South Wales.

Read more

Phil Smith's Sunderland player ratings following Swansea defeat

Swansea keeper goes down with cramp

As tensions rose in the closing stages, Mowbray and his Sunderland players were left incensed when Swansea keeper Benda went down with cramp in stoppage-time.

Mowbray, Batth and captain Corry Evans all made their feelings known to the fourth official, with the latter justifiably asking how can a keeper have cramp?

The pause in play allowed Benda to receive treatment and didn’t help Sunderland’s search for a late equaliser.