JACK ROSS hopes Josh Maja will see his future at Sunderland after the teenage striker proved his quality in front of goal by preventing a defeat to Wycombe this afternoon.

The 19-year-old emerged from the bench to notch his 11th of the season with six minutes remaining to cancel out Wycombe winger Fred Onyedinma’s 66th minute opener.

It was a result which was not enough to see Sunderland hit top spot in League One, and it also meant that the eight-match winning run came to an end.

But Ross knows all about the quality of Maja in front of goal, even if he started with Jerome Sinclair, on loan from Watford, ahead of him.

Maja, who moved from Fulham aged 16, is an academy graduate at Sunderland and is out of contract in the summer so has clubs monitoring him at higher levels.

Ross said: “I know he will be here with me until minimum January and I would hope longer but you can’t say that with any certainty but I hope he will be at Sunderland for the foreseeable future.

“I do know he is enjoying his football and playing regularly and contributing and you sometimes forget how young he is and to score 11 goals he deserves huge credit for that but he is level headed.

“He knows there are aspects of his game he needs to improve on and he knows he can progress here. I believe we will continue to improve him but there are not that many better clubs than this so there are a whole lot of things for him to consider.

On the result, Ross added: “There is an element of frustration after this because there was the tangible reward for us and how the game panned out there is frustration. On the flip side I don’t think you could ask the players to show more desire and the response to adversity has been very good.

“You have to have good squads who want to play in the game and every single player deserves credit for making a contribution to get something from the game and they deserve enormous credit.”

The Northern Echo:

Opener: Wycombe celebrate the lead

Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth was clearly delighted with the outcome, with his side sitting 15th in the division.

In front of a 30,000-plus crowd, the Chairboys gave the Black Cats a real scare by taking the lead deep into the second half.

Ainsworth said: “It was a superb performance by the boys. I thought we were the better side in the first half and up to the goal it was very even but after the goal Sunderland piled some serious pressure on us.

“Once one goal comes at this fantastic football club, the fans are behind them and it could have been two. We've competed with what I think is the league’s best team. Jack Ross is a fantastic manager and this is a proper football club.

“I don't think teams under-estimate us, I think they respect us. We really do punch above our weight so to come here and be on the front foot was something we wanted to do. It was nice to see little bits of the plan come off. They're a team that should be in a higher division.

“We stayed next door to the ground. I think teams usually come through a back door but I said to the stewards I wanted our lads to come in through the front door with our chests out.

“There's some fabulous names and clubs and players who have come through those doors and my lads deserved that after last season. It would be fantastic to come back one day but there's a couple of fantasy things there.

“It's one of the biggest gulfs in the league. Clubs like Accrington, Gillingham and Walsall are similar stature to us.”