Stephen Elliott: This key flaw in 'phenomenal' Luke O'Nien's game is costing Sunderland

Swansea stood in the way of a potential top six place place come the end of the weekend. The game itself felt like an important one and the big crowd emphasised that.

I felt in the early exchanges it looked like Sunderland were well up for the contest and started the game much brighter than their opponents with Patrick Roberts, Amad Diallo and Jack Clarke looking like they had the bit between their teeth.

However, in the matter of a few seconds, just before the 20 minute mark, the game was turned on its head. Amad Diallo looked like he had earned his team a penalty when he was hacked down in the box. To the dismay of every red and white fan, myself included, the referee Keith Stroud, who had an absolute shocker all afternoon, waved the play on.

As a result of this, Luke O’Nien decided to take his frustration out on Swansea attacker Oli Cooper. The tackle on the halfway line was rash and unnecessary and asked the referee a question. He duly answered by giving O’Nien his marching orders.

O’Nien has been outstanding this season playing in an unfamiliar role but if there is one question mark on his game it is, at times, his inability to compose himself before diving into similar tackles like Saturday.

He was the hero last week but there is no doubt that this week his emotions post-match would have been completely the opposite. This flaw in his game proved costly to the team and I’m sure he doesn’t need me to let him know this.

I genuinely believe if he keeps his head and just stays on his feet then Sunderland go on and win the game. Obviously you could argue that he reacted to a poor referee decision but for me he needs to be a bit cleverer. As I said he has been phenomenal this season so I won’t hang him out to dry. Let’s hope he learns going forward.

Back to the action and unfortunately for Sunderland in result of the sending off, Patrick Roberts was sacrificed to get Danny Batth on to fill the gap O’Nien had left.

Don’t get me wrong it was great to see the big stopper back after missing the last few weeks but losing an attacker, especially Roberts who was increasingly looking more dangerous, changed the tone of the game.

Sunderland worked their socks off with 10-men but you felt it was only a matter of time before the Swans got their breakthrough.

There was still positives to come from the game; Batth coming back in, who looked strong and will soften the burden of the looming suspension of O’Nien.

Also, I thought Dan Neil was outstanding and did great for his goal. Ultimately, it was too big an ask to get anything from the game but I still came away thinking that this is a proper team who are all playing for each other.

I think supporters realise this and there is no reason why this team can’t keep themselves within touching distance of the play-off berths.