Sunderland 1-2 Huddersfield Town: Missed chances to impress and poor defending in dismal defeat

Sunderland slumped to back-to-back defeats after a poor performance against Huddersfield Town on Wednesday night.

The visitors took the lead through Michal Helik and though Luke O'Nien levelled the scores shortly before the break, Delano Burgzorg scored a winner against the run of play midway through the second half.

Tony Mowbray's side laboured through the closing stages of the game without creating any significant chances, meaning more ground lost on the top six.

Here's the story of the game and its key talking points..

MOWBRAY FRESHENS IT UP - BUT ONE CHANGE FORCED

Though poor finishing had been the primary problem at Plymouth, there was nevertheless a groundswell of opinion that the time had come to freshen things up and Mowbray was clearly in agreement. Having continued to impress Adil Aouchiche was handed his first start, while Jenson Seelt came in at right back as Niall Huggins' workload is carefully managed during an intense schedule.

There was also a change up front as Eliezer Mayenda came into the side, though that was at least in part due to what is believed to be a minor injury to Nazariy Rusyn - who was not included on the bench.

There was opportunity for a number of players to really stake a claim as Mowbray rotated, but in truth few could say at the end that they staked their claim for more starts.

DISMAL START GETS PUNISHED... EVENTUALLY

Sunderland dominated possession throughout the first half and yet it was a tough watch in which Huddersfield Town undeniably had the better of the chances. The first warning sign came just three minutes in, a quick break from the visitors allowed them to work the ball to the far post, where Jaheim Headley looked certain to score. He was denied only by some superb goalkeeping, Patterson racing off the line to narrow the angle and make the save with his body.

Conscious of Huddersfield's decision to sit deep, Sunderland were rightly trying to be ambitious in pushing players forward. The problem was that their passing was nowhere near good enough, giving Huddersfield big chances to break quickly and work overloads. They had the second big chance of the game when Burgzorg broke through, but his poor first touch cut off his angle and meant he could only drive into the side netting.

Sunderland had only mustered one shot on target when Huddersfield equalised, capitalising on some very soft defending. A corner was floated to the back post and headed back across goal, where Michal Helik was free to head in from just a yard. From a Sunderland perspective it was slack and unfortunately, entirely in keeping with their performance in the first half hour.

A LIFELINE BEFORE THE BREAK

Sunderland had laboured throughout the first half, the frustration visible and audible both on the pitch and in the stands. That they went into the break level and with a chance to reset owed much to the quick footwork of Aouchiche, who drew a foul from Tom Lees who was rightly booked. Roberts stood the free kick up to the back post, and eventually Seelt was able to head it into the path of O'Nien who crashed home a volley from a yard or so.

Set pieces were actually proving to be a surprisingly fruitful outfit for Sunderland - Seelt should probably have got on the scoresheet himself when he met Roberts' corner at the front post early in the second half. He could only turn his effort over, but it represented a much better start to the half from the hosts.

SUNDERLAND BEGIN TO TURN THE SCREW - BUT CONCEDE FROM NOWHERE

Towards the hour mark Sunderland finally began to play as we know we can, pushing Huddersfield back and beginning to build sustained pressure. Only two very good saves from Chris Maxwell denied Sunderland, the first with his trailing foot as Jobe was slid through on goal. He then denied Hume's good effort from long range, but all that effort went to waste with another poor piece of defending at the other end. Sunderland looked to have dealt with the danger when they landed a big challenge on the edge of the area, and yet somehow no one was able to close Burgzorg down and he was able to rifle his effort into the far corner.

MOWBRAY RINGS THE CHANGES - BUT TO NO AVAIL

Mowbray responded quickly with a quadruple substitution, and then brought on Mason Burstow not long after. In truth it did little to turn the tide of the game, with Huddersfield managing the final stages of the game without really facing any major chances.

This was a very poor Sunderland display, probably their poorest of the campaign to date. After the defeat to Plymouth at the weekend they have lost real ground in the race for the top six. A quick response is needed because this performance well short of what is expected and the standard this team has set.

Sunderland AFC XI: Patterson; Seelt (Burstow, 83), Ballard, O'Nien, Hume; Neil, Jobe (Dack, 73) ; Roberts (Ba, 73), Aouchiche (Pritchard, 73), Clarke; Mayenda (Hemir, 73)

Subs: Bishop, Huggins, Triantis, Ekwah

Huddersfield Town XI: Maxwell; Lees, Helik, Pearson; Jackson, Kasumu, Hogg (Edmonds-Green, 87), Headley; Thomas, Koroma (Diarra, 68), Burgzorg (Ward, 68)

Subs: Chapman, Edwards, Nakayama, Austerfield, Ayina, Iorpenda

Bookings: Aouchiche, 31 Lees, 39 Clarke, 90

Attendance: 37, 728