West Brom 1-2 Sunderland: Player Ratings as play-offs become real possibility

Sunderland have given themselves a genuine chance of making the play-offs after a superb 2-1 win at West Brom.

Rob Cairns | Apr 23, 2023

West Brom 1-2 Sunderland: Player Ratings as play-offs become real possibility /

Sunderland gave themselves a real shot at making the Championship play-offs with a superb comeback win at West Brom.

The Black Cats were unfortunate to go in at half-time a goal down after the Baggies were awarded a very controversial penalty, which was easily converted by John Swift.

However, with Sunderland needing a goalscoring hero, they found one in the most unlikeliest of places. Dennis Cirkin scored twice in the second half, with the winner arguably the club's goal of the season, so win the game and move Tony Mowbray's side into the play-off positions with two games remaining.

Here is how the players rated:

Sunderland player ratings vs West Brom

Anthony Patterson - Kicking was composed and brave. Didn't have a lot of saves to make but did well when called upon. 7

Lynden Gooch - Absolutely excellent for Cirkin's equaliser. Battled resiliently throughout. Captain's performance. 8

Trai Hume - His maturity and cool-headedness is amazing considering his relative inexperience. Playing at centre half for most of the game, he got in the way of everything, and as usual was excellent on the ball. 8

Luke O'Nien - Wrongly penalised for the challenge which gave West Brom the lead, but it was rash and clumsy all the same. Possibly could have given away another and was generally a bit erratic and over eager to make a challenge. 5

Dennis Cirkin - Of all the pleasantly surprising subplots this season, my favourite has to be Dennis Cirkin becoming a serious goal threat. Took both brilliantly. Generally defended pretty solidly, his and Hume's versatility and ability to slot in centrally being a real asset. 8

Pierre Ekwah - A couple of iffy moments to begin with, before he grew into the game and did pretty well on the ball. Looks like he's always running at about 60% speed, but managed to intercept loose balls pretty well. 7

Dan Neil - Passed the ball around really confidently and was integral to our dominating the ball in the first half. Doing the simple things well isn't as easy as he makes it look. 7

Jack Clarke - He's come on leaps and bounds this season. He seems to have filled out a bit physically and isn't getting bullied off the ball anymore. Was inches away from giving us the lead from the rebound of Dan Neil's shot. Neil Warnock described him as one of the best players in the league in the week. I wouldn't have seen it a few months ago, but it's hard to disagree on recent form. 8

Amad Diallo - Such a wonderful technical player. Not only that, but more often than not he makes great decisions with the ball. The jewel in the crown of this fantastic young side. Hopefully it's not just two more games that we get to watch him in a Sunderland shirt. 8

Abdoullah Ba - Has moments where he shows his excellent close control, but for the most part he's a bit lightweight. He's very capable of combining nicely in the one-touch moves, but can look a bit lost when closer to goal. 6

Joe Gelhardt - Was excellent in the first half, repeatedly getting fouled, getting up and going again. He was unlucky that his well struck volley was flicked over by Molumby. In the second half he was less involved but he's really growing into it now though. 7

SUBS

Edouard Michut - Added legs and quality on the ball. 6

Patrick Roberts - The ball didn't look as closely attached to his left foot as it usually does, but he did his defensive work diligently to see out the game. 6

Alex Pritchard - Came on and combined superbly for Cirkin's winner. His introduction just gave the team a little more composure and class. 7

Sunderland player ratings vs West Brom

Read more Sunderland news