Sunderland 0-1 Leicester City: Too little, too late as attacking woe and losing run continues - with one positive

Sunderland fell to their fifth Championship defeat in a row at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night, with their play-off ambitions now surely all but over.

Jamie Vardy gave the visitors a deserved lead in the opening exchanges of the game and though Sunderland improved significantly after the break, they were unable to force an equaliser.

Here's the story of the game and its key talking points from a Sunderland perspective...

SUNDERLAND GO BEHIND EARLY - AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Dodds continued his tactical tweaking against one of the strongest possession-based sides in the division, keeping Jenson Seelt in the side and operating with a back five. Sunderland allowed Leicester City goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to have the ball and instead pressed when the ball came into midfield, marking man-for-man all over the pitch.

Their dilemma was summed up in that the first couple of times they jumped out to really press aggressively, Leicester City played through them with alarming ease. An opening goal appeared to be a matter of time as Sunderland struggled to pick up Stephy Mavididi, the winger's low cross cut out by Luke O'Nien just in front of the onrushing Leicester midfielders. Patterson then made an excellent double save to prevent a certain goal, Jamie Vardy and then Yunus Akgun denied by the goalkeeper's strong reflexes. The goalkeeper looked to have done it again with a brilliant stop to deny Wout Faes as he rose to meet Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's free kick, but this time Vardy made no mistake from the rebound as he converted a simple header.

Leicester City were constantly finding space between the centre halves and the wing backs, and it looked as if they could put the game to bed before it barely got going.

SUNDERLAND STEADY - BUT STRUGGLE TO THREATEN

Sunderland did begin to find their feet a little after what had been a woeful start, finally build some spells of possession in the opposition half. The half time statistics told their own story, though. The home side had managed three shots, just one on target - and had barely threatened the visiting side.

That one shot on target came from a nice move that saw Luke O'Nien drive to the edge of the area and cross for Jobe, whose header just lacked the power to beat Hermansen as he scrambled across his line. It was hard to see where a goal was going to come from, with very little width and pace to turn rare counter-attacking opportunities into an effort.

SIGNS OF A THREAT AT LAST

The second half started much the same as the first had, with Sunderland keeping Leicester City at bay but struggling to trouble them on the ball. The home side suffered a blow when Luke O'Nien was harshly booked for his first foul of the game, judged to have been too forceful in trying to steal possession from Akgun.

With Sunderland offering little threat Dodds turned to his bench, and the introduction of Adil Aouchiche in particular brought an immediate injection of energy. His pass found Trai Hume advancing on goal, and the right-back's long-range effort almost flew in. Hermansen was just able to turn the ball onto the bar crossbar, with Mundle heading the rebound wide. The Stadium of Light responded vociferously to that encouragement for their team.

RIGG TAKES HIS CHANCE

Positives have been few and far between of late for Sunderland but Chris Rigg's full debut will have left supporters excited to see what's next. The 16-year-old played with no fear and caused problems with his energy in the second half, an impressive display. that was met with a strong ovation when he was withdrawn with ten minutes to play. Aouchiche also made a case for more minutes, given how liuttle Leicester looked troubled until his arrival.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE AS SUNDERLAND'S DRIFT CONTINUES

Leicester City offered little throughout the second half, though of course their lead meant that they didn't necessarily have to. Sunderland improved considerably, their performance much more aggressive as supporters would expect. The concern again is that even in the spells where they are playing well, they are still creating very little from open play - Hermansen had little to do other than Hume's long-range efforts. That above all else is the reason why Sunderland's season has so dramatically ebbed away.

Sunderland were adamant that they should have had a late penalty when Dan Ballard was played through on goal by Aouchiche, but his appeals were waved away as he went down under a challenge from the last defender. That was the last meaningful action of the game.

Sunderland XI: Patterson; Seelt, Ballard, O'Nien; Hume, Neil, Ekwah (Mundle, 60), Hjelde; Rigg (Rusyn, 81), Jobe (Styles, 81), Hemir (Aouchiche, 60)

Subs: Bishop, Pembele, Burstow, Ba, Kelly

Leicester City XI: Hermansen; Faes, Coady, Doyle; Winks, Fatawu (Justin, 85), Yunus (Ndidi, 70), Choudhury; Mavididi, Vardy (Iheanacho, 77)

Subs: Stolarcyzk, Albrighton, Souttar, Daka, Marcal, Nelson

Bookings: O'Nien, 55 Hemansen, 67 Ndidi, 89

Attendance: 40,293