Stephen Elliott: Sunderland can send a strong message with Ipswich win - and must raise the bar after Gillingham battle

Factoring in the horrible conditions that added to the test, Phil Parkinson must have been delighted to come away with all the spoils on Saturday.

It wasn’t pleasing on the eye and Sunderland weren’t particularly great, but they deserved the victory. Barring 15 minutes after the break, when Gillingham appeared to get a slight foothold, Sunderland were the superior team and created the most meaningful chances.

Grant Leadbitter came back into the team, one of the four changes made, and was a major factor in the side returning to winning ways. Again, he wasn’t outstanding, but his presence gave the team a lot more control in the central areas. He showed composure on the ball and passed it consistently to his teammates. This was something which was evidently lacking from the team at Rochdale.

While on individuals, Lee Burge should be given credit for his penalty save during a period of Gillingham pressure. I feel he deserved his bit of luck when the follow up shot bounced over the crossbar. After conceding five goals in the last two games, the clean sheet will please him.

Gillingham seemed to lose all discipline after that penalty miss, highlighted by Alex MacDonald being sent off for what was an atrocious lunge on Luke O’Nien. Challenges like that are not welcome in the game and O’Nien was lucky to come away unscathed.

The red card lifted Sunderland and seemed to give the team the impetus to push on and get the winner. I know from experience playing against ten men sometimes can be difficult because you have to break down a team that get men behind the ball, but I felt the team used their numerical advantage constructively to get up the pitch and into dangerous areas around the Gillingham box.

Returning to praising individuals, I thought Charlie Wyke, again, put in a decent shift on a day where it was tough for his teammates to play free-flowing football. He was an important focal point for the team. It was a deserved moment for the big forward when he got himself in front of his marker and bought his team a penalty – a much needed breakthrough in the game.

Chris Maguire started on the bench, something that raised a few eyebrows, but it clearly didn’t affect his confidence judging by the way he casually slotted the penalty home. He will be hoping to come back into the side after the ineffectual Aiden O’Brien gave another performance that fails to suggest he will score or create goals in the near future.

Somebody who certainly has goals in him, is Lynden Gooch and he will be delighted with another top individual effort to seal the victory in the dying moments. If there was one player in this squad you’d want breaking through on goal like that, with pace, strength and composure, it would be him.

All in all, Saturday was an important win, but the level of performance will have to be lifted again to beat Ipswich on Tuesday. They have started the season strong and will fancy their chances. If Sunderland do win the game it will send a strong message out that the squad have the capabilities of beating their promotion rivals. To go up automatically this will be needed frankly, especially at home.

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