What were the positives and negatives from Sunderland's draw with Watford?

09/02/2025 07:00

The Lads grabbed a late equaliser to preserve their unbeaten home record, but this was another challenging afternoon at the Stadium of Light. What did our writers make of the game?

John Wilson says…

Enzo Le Fée's display

The continuation of watching Enzo could become the highlight of the second half of the season.

Every time he gets the ball, I'm expecting something to happen.

He doesn't always play the obvious pass or ball, but the more connections he makes with Wilson Isidor and other members of the team, the better.

We didn't lose!

We got a point and saved our unbeaten home record.

We had chances to win it at the end, but we didn't deserve to.

Sunderland's mentality issues

Although it wasn't the slowest start I've seen this season — partly helped by us scoring in the first fifteen minutes — we do have a mental or psychological problem of being far too casual.

We have a strange capacity to make any opposition look very good and to gift them the opportunity to take control of the game.

We were hanging on at the end of the first half and I can't fathom why we can't seem to kick on and get a second or third goal to kill a team off.

We have an attitude of 'We've got this lads', instead of knuckling down, and I'm afraid this mentality will mean we miss out on automatic promotion.

The officials…yet again

What a surprise! Inconsistent. Erratic.

Has kicking the ball away or stopping a free kick from being taken now become a non-bookable offence? When? Too often, referees shy away from brave decisions and instead ignore penalty shouts.

Writing this straight after the match isn't a good idea because we shouldn't have been in a position to be angry with the referee.

We show a lack of respect to some teams and when games are close, fine margins can come back to hurt us. Luton will be up for it on Wednesday, but will we, or shall we consolidate a playoff birth?

Lars Knutsen says…

We stuck with it

If we look back on the season and are unbeaten at home, games like this one, as well as Leeds and Bristol City, have been opportunities to show the true grit of this team.

There's a real steel and determination which we had to show against an abrasive and difficult Watford side. We still found a way to equalise, despite the time wasting and gamesmanship shown by the visitors.

This is a tough league.

Continuity pays dividends

This game had a very similar ending to the 2-2 draw in late April 2023, when Watford were having a poor season under Chris Wilder.

We were 1-2 down, Patrick Roberts scored one of the best goals ever seen at home in the Championship, and six of the team that day started this match.

I guess that's illustrative of the team spirit and high morale of the current Sunderland side — even in adverse circumstances.

Another underwhelming result at home

Just like the Plymouth game, I was expecting an easy home victory, and more so after the opening goal from Luke O'Nien.

We somehow lost our way after that. Watford were allowed back into the game, and Imran Louza's goal was a screamer.

Home comforts or home pressures?

Is a nervousness about playing at home creeping into this squad?

We've seen that in the last two seasons and we could definitely do without that emerging as we aim for the Premier League next season. Régis Le Bris needs to get the '-oligists' in to work with the players to ensure a winning mentality.

We've just experienced too many draws this season, despite only suffering four defeats.

Malc Dugdale says…

The fortress still holds

We found a way to get something from that game when, with ten minutes to go, I'd already started to accept that our undefeated home record had gone.

Four points across any two games is good, and while we fought hard for the win at Boro, we underperformed yesterday but still got something.

A point is a point and two points per game is not to be sniffed at.

Goals from different sources

It was a tough day up front for Wilson Isidor and company, but Luke O'Nien and Dennis Cirkin stepped up to ensure we didn't lose a game we probably should've won — had we got out of first gear.

When a team isn't at their best, they all need to pull together to grind out a result at times, and the goals were very much that.

O'Nien got one against a club he started with and Cirkin made good for the penalty with a well-steered shot late on.

While not a great showing as a squad, you can't not praise the defenders for netting the two we needed. Well done, lads.

A lack of cutting edge

We went 1-0 up within fifteen minutes and really should've kicked on, but sat back instead.

That's happening way too often and we need to sort it out. Watford aren't a great side but if you sit deep and invite pressure, even the dullest of attacks will create a couple of chances.

We can't really blame anyone for the goal that they scored at the start of the second half to take the lead, but if we'd pressed better and got a second, their recent form would've come back to haunt them.

Another two points we've likely dropped due to a passive approach once they let us in, and hopefully not something we rue later.

Another missed opportunity

We had chances in the later stages to take the win and when Eliezer Mayenda played Isidor in, I was off my seat, but we didn't capitalise on the chances this time.

Fair play to the goalkeeper who saved from our striker, as on any other day he scores that and we're raving about six points from six.

Hopefully this won't bite us on the arse and the others in the top three fail to pull away after we've made it so close.

Mark Wood says…

A good start

Turning the recent poor starts on their head, we were off to a flier, going a goal up and looking set to go for the jugular against what's been a badly out-of-form Watford side.

Another goal in that opening spell would've killed the game off and brought home the three points, and we looked more than capable of doing just that in the first twenty minutes.

You have to say we finished the game well after our equaliser and could easily have won it — it's just the bit in the middle of these two spells where we were so poor.

Dennis Cirkin delivers

Not for the first time this season, he peeled free at the far post for one of our set pieces and made Watford pay when he sent a superb return straight into the path of the diving Luke O'Nien to put us ahead.

We saw him doing this regularly from set plays in the first part of the season, but not so much lately.

He also popped up with the much-needed equaliser when I have to admit I thought we were heading for a deserved defeat up to that point, as in terms of ideas and creativity, we seemed to have nothing left to offer.

Dennis Cirkin blots his copybook

In what was a completely mixed but full day at the office for our left back, he'd already picked up a needless booking when he went looking for retribution just a minute after being on the receiving end of a bookable foul.

For the penalty he gave away, I've heard people say that he took a swing and made no contact with anything. It's hard to tell from the replays, but right after Anthony Patterson had made a great save, the Watford player picked up the ball and was heading away from the goal.

For me, he didn't have to try and make a challenge there and as clumsy as it looked and with no VAR, the referee was bound to give the foul.

He was already on a booking and if it would normally be a non-bookable offence outside the penalty area, how many times have we seen that 'anything goes' inside the box?

With that referee, he could've been off at that point both for challenges, where he should've making better calls of judgement. All fingers were fully crossed in those few seconds after the penalty was given.

A game we could've won but a point we were fortunate to get

On paper, these were three points we should've been taking, but we were lucky to get a point.

After going in front and during our opening spell, we allowed Watford to dominate possession and our game plan seemed to be to catch them on the counter, except the only thing that happened was that our out-of-sorts opponents gained the confidence to come at us in the first half.

You have to wonder about set up and team selection, with playing a defensive midfielder in place of the injured Jobe an obvious one, but also with Chris Rigg out of form, I'd prefer to see Eliezer Mayenda up front with Wilson Isidor in a 4-4-2.

Not for the first time this season, he laid on a peach of a pass to send Isidor away.

I know people don't trust his finishing and I'm one of them, but he has that creative side to his game and you can see he that gives defenders plenty to think about when they're backing off him.