Sunderland suffered a humiliating defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday.
Few, if any, would have foreseen Sunderland’s 5-1 defeat at home to Blackburn Rovers on Monday afternoon.
In fact, many people expected Mike Dodds’ side to defeat a struggling Rovers side after returning to winning ways on Friday.
Sunderland won 2-0 against Cardiff City before the weekend.
They looked like their old selves that day, playing with greater attacking freedom and potency after going seven games without a win.
Sunderland started well against Blackburn.
But, after 15 minutes, the tide began to turn, and after 30 minutes, the first of five goals was scored.
Sunderland 1–5. Blackburn Rovers put a damper on Mike Dodds parade.
Dodds would have been overjoyed to secure his first victory on Friday.
But Monday’s performance enraged him, and Dodds had a lot to say in the post-match press conference.
The Black Cats are now 13th in the Championship table, two points behind Bristol City in 12th, and 11 points separate Sunderland from the bottom three.
With with six games remaining, relegation is extremely unlikely.
However, it appears unlikely that Sunderland will finish strongly and set the tone for the summer.
Sunderland broke a 65-year record against Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday.
And it turns out that the defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Easter Monday was not just humiliating, but also record-breaking.
After the game, journalist James Copley discovered that the Rovers game was Sunderland’s worst-ever home defeat on Easter Monday, as well as the club’s worst Easter Monday defeat since 1959 (65 years ago).
Sunderland has only surrendered five goals at the Stadium of Light three times before.
Blackburn’s horror show does the Black Cats hierarchy no good.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman will be looking for a new manager in the summer, and defeats like the one against Blackburn Rovers may hurt their chances of hiring a good coach.
Will Still and even Steve Cooper will undoubtedly be put off going to Wearside after seeing this result.
The present playing roster is simply not up to par, and with Jack Clarke expected to go in the summer, maybe along with Anthony Patterson, the situation will only deteriorate.
And, after this season, there is less faith in Speakman’s transfer expertise, thus Sunderland has little hope of putting the Clarke and Patterson millions to good use in the summer. There is a lot to solve this summer.
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