Sunderland 3-1 Plymouth – Andy’s Player Ratings: Beale’s Black Cats score three goals, but there is bad news: two elite players will miss some games because of…

Sunderland came from behind in an emphatic second half to stick three past a decent Plymouth side at the SoL. Here’s how Andy rated the Lads!

Anthony Patterson: 5/10

Not much to do throughout the game but pushed too far up for Plymouth’s opener but then did well to delay the striker getting his shot off but once Hume came back he hung around right behind Hume in no-man’s land rather than getting back onto his goal line.

Trai Hume: 7/10

Caught out for the Plymouth goal and on a couple of other occasions in the first half, grew into the game though and was excellent after the break. Got forward to support attacks and played a great long ball for Clarke.

Dan Ballard: 7/10

Not much threat from Plymouth, allowing Ballard to cruise through most of the game.

Luke O’Nien (C): 7/10

Similar to Ballard but had a couple of instances of him driving us forward after finding space in the middle of the pitch.

Leo Hjelde: 7/10

Still looks a little rusty, particularly with his passing that was erratic, but defended well and completely snuffed out Plymouth’s main threat Whittaker.

Dan Neil: 8/10

Fantastic effort from the middle of the pitch, drove us forward often and seemed to have a lot more license to make something happen today.

Pierre Ekwah: 7/10

Took his goal really well, cutting the ball back into the near post after Roberts laid the ball off. Played quite well from open play, moving the ball and combining with Neil but maybe a little too safe with his passes at times.

Patrick Roberts: 6/10

Got an assist after laying the ball off for Ekwah but a frustrating game for Roberts. Gave us good balance just with his presence on the right, couldn’t consistently threaten though and often ran down blind alleys.

Abdoullah Ba: 6/10

Caused Plymouth problems with his positioning, getting into pockets of space between their midfield and defence, set away Clarke a couple of times very early on and won a free kick on the edge of the box, but usually struggled to make use of that room.

Jack Clarke: 7/10

Unbelievable goal for what ended up being the winner, didn’t have an awful lot of other chances to run at Plymouth like that but also stung the goalkeeper’s face in the first half with a shot from distance. Very wasteful from a couple of well placed free kicks.

Nazariy Rusyn: 7/10

Not a sniff of goal but does so much good work for the team, dragged the defenders around, came deeper to link up play, ran the channels well and was a nuisance to Plymouth all afternoon.