Stephen Elliott: Sunderland should have made subs earlier at Doncaster Rovers and Phil Parkinson has to take responsibility

It’s where we are at. Why and how did we manage to get here? Well, that’s another story, for a different day.

It was a much better-balanced team selection, with Luke O’Nien and Lynden Gooch starting in more recognised positions. It seemed to have the desired effect with Sunderland coming out of the blocks relatively quickly, and overall Doncaster struggled to cope with them in the opening 45 minutes.

At half-time I messaged a friend saying how well the team had played, and how I felt the one goal lead, an absolute worldie from the (once again) outstanding Grant Leadbitter, didn’t do the performance justice.

Sunderland played on the front foot with Leadbitter, Josh Scowen and Gooch getting right up alongside Charlie Wyke and Chris Maguire.

It stopped Doncaster getting any type of foothold in the game. It was a high tempo pressing game that I really enjoyed, especially after some of those dismal showings recently.

Additionally, both O’Nien and Hume were getting into really good attacking areas and there was some really nice interchange between the team at that end of the pitch.

As good as the first half showing was, it would have been hard to keep up that intensity for the whole game as the team exerted a lot of energy to play in that manner.

However, my thoughts were that there was enough on the bench to make the changes if, and when, they were needed.

The new rule that allows five substitutions should be a big advantage to Phil Parkinson, due to the size and experience of his squad.

With the same XI continuing into the second half, it was no surprise their grip on the game loosened.

It was clear to anyone watching that Wyke, Maguire and Gooch had pushed their energy levels to their limits.

Wyke, in particular, looked exhausted and had one of his poorer games in recent weeks. The ball wasn’t sticking with him at all in the second half and it gave a poor Doncaster team a little bit of an impetus to get back into the game.

It’s easy to say in hindsight, of course, but surely somebody among the coaching staff must have realised that making a couple of changes was a necessity.

Introducing some fresh legs into the forward areas could have helped finish Doncaster off, they were there for the taking.

Instead, the changes were not forthcoming until the later stages of the game and when they did arrive, they were clearly made to try and see out the result.

The equalising goal was a shocker. Tom Flanagan and Bailey Wright should each have done better but the manager needs to take responsibility for how it unfolded himself.

It reminded me of Jack Ross’ Sunderland team, who often failed to see out the job.

This was usually down to a fear of going and winning games as comfortably as they should have done.

There is no getting away from the fact that it’s more points dropped and another dent in Sunderland’s promotion hopes.

Fleetwood away will be a tough test with them flying at the minute, and they certainly haven’t been kind opposition to Sunderland thus far in this League One journey.

You get the feeling this game is one that Sunderland, and the manager especially, has to win.

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