Sunderland earned their second victory from as many games in 2025 by beating a Portsmouth side who managed to make things nervy at times, even when down to ten men. A Wilson Isidor goal was the difference.
ANTHONY PATTERSON: 6.5/10
A clean sheet isn’t something to complain about but he made a blunder in the second half by sending it straight to one of their players on the edge of the box and generally dawdled a bit too often when he had the ball.
TRAI HUME: 7.5/10
A good game from him today, was very effective defensively especially. Going forward he perhaps could have done slightly better, there was a shot sent straight into the keeper’s arms for example but a nice performance overall.
CHRIS MEPHAM: 6.5/10
Obviously we didn’t concede and because he’s a centre back he deserves praise for that, however he had a few dodgy moments with Patterson when we attempted to play it out from the back that could have easily cost us on a different day.
LUKE O’NIEN: 8/10
O’Nien was great with his defensive duties and helped out a bit going forward. Saying that, his shooting wasn’t great though and I think he should have laid the ball off to somebody.
AJI ALESE: 6.5/10
He played well and probably would have been given a higher mark if he’d stayed on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes. Let’s hope the injury (at least that’s why I think he’s come isn’t too serious.
DAN NEIL: 8/10
The midfield as a unit today was a bit too negative sometimes, I don’t think they pressed enough when we were facing ten men and that put far too much pressure on our backline towards the end. Individually however, neither Neil or Bellingham had a bad game. Neil was our best player at times and looked difficult to get past for the most of the game.
JOBE BELLINGHAM: 7.5/10
I don’t think he looked quite as refined as Neil throughout the game but he had lots of very bright moments and kept hold of the ball very well.
PATRICK ROBERTS: 8/10
Fantastic today, very unlucky not to score in the first half with that blocked effort. Whenever he was on the ball he created problems and his shooting definitely warranted at least one goal today
ELIEZER MAYENDA: 7.5/10
Assisted the goal and had a few good dribbles forward. He should have fared better in front of goal himself though, most notably with that effort at the end.
ADIL AOUCHICHE: 6.5/10
Similar to his last game, was great at getting into good positions but then struggled a tad in the final third. I think he did better at getting shots away in this one but none of them were too much bother for the goalkeeper.
WILSON ISIDOR: 7.5/10
A well taken goal and he made a few runs where he just wasn’t found by our other players. I’m not sure he made enough effort to get on the ball sometimes though when ti was loose or bouncing around the box.
SUBS:
DENNIS CIRKIN: 6.5/10
Decent from him, like Alese, however once again only had 45 minutes to do anything though.
MILAN ALEKSIC: N/A
Not on the pitch quite long enough for a rating. I’m excited to see him play in the cup because he looked very good and sent in a lovely pass to Mayenda close to the end.
NAZARIY RUSYN: N/A
Came on for a cameo at the end, the substitution was likely made just to take the sting out of the match when we were under pressure.
