Sunderland's record push ends in front of Reid but hopes remain high

Instead the eight-match run of consecutive victories is over, courtesy of a largely stuttering performance on home soil which ought to have really left the Black Cats relieved to have taken something at all.

Had Sunderland come up with a way to have defeated Wycombe Wanderers at the Stadium of Light then Jack Ross’ team would have won nine in a row. Not since Peter Reid’s title winners in 1995-96 – to go with the successful 1891-92 side’s run – has that been achieved.

But even though the winning run is over, and an opportunity to hit top spot gone for another week, it is certainly not all doom and gloom on Wearside.

The sheer fact that the class of 2018 were within touching distance of being only the third Sunderland team in history to make it nine highlights the progress being made in a short space of time under Ross and Co, albeit in the third tier of the English game.

Sunderland defender Reece James, who knows Reid personally and was told to grab the chance to sign in the summer, said: “I didn’t know that Peter’s team was the last to do it.

“The mentality the gaffer is building here, he wants us to be that sort of team, he wants us to have that mentality.

“Everyone came into the changing room at the end disappointed that we only got a draw.

“But if you look at it in another sense, if we had won this and drawn a previous away game which we had won, then it is not a bad way to look at the table.

“We want to win games at home though. Everyone is gutted and we have to make sure we put it right against Walsall next week.”

James is enjoying a good run in the team after having to bide his time initially, waiting for an opportunity which was presented by a suspension to Bryan Oviedo and an injury to Denver Hume.

He has been solid at the back and is enjoying every minute of being involved with Sunderland, home and away, just as Reid had told him he would before he made the decision to swap Wigan for Wearside.

“What he said to me in the summer, this club has lived up massively to those expectations,” said James, who was aware that Sunderland owner Stewart Donald went on the pitch to thanks fans for their support beforehand.

“He spoke highly of this place and said it’s an opportunity I couldn’t turn down when the size of a club like this comes calling, he said the fans were unbelievable.

“I saw that from day one on the opening day. They have backed us to the hilt ever since. To see us take 5,000 fans to Gillingham on a Tuesday night from up here, in League One, I don’t think you can get that from many clubs in the country.

“That was what he said. He said the fans will back you to the hilt and that the fans will back you as a city and club. If you play for Sunderland you will be backed and I have seen that.”

Owner: Stewart Donald

Reid was sat in the stands at the Stadium of Light when James and Co came up short in their attempts to beat Wycombe, which would have taken them within one more game of becoming the first Sunderland team in history to win ten in a row.

But the former Sunderland manager will still have been impressed by the heart the team showed to get back onto level terms having fallen behind in the 66th minute to Fred Onyedinma’s opener.

The young loanee from Millwall was on hand in the area to power a finish high beyond Scotland goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin from 14 yards after Sunderland had failed to deal with a free-kick into their box.

Before that Wycombe caused problems for their slow starting hosts. Had Adam El-Abd directed a corner on goal rather than wide with a close-range diving header then the Chairboys would have been ahead earlier.

But Sunderland had a couple of chances too. The best of those fell to Aidan McGeady. The Irish winger, who was full of tricks without scoring or assisting, rolled an effort wide of the upright after getting free of his marker in the area.

But after Onyedinma’s goal, Sunderland found an extra gear like they often did earlier in the season. With leading scorer Josh Maja and midfielder Max Power on, they looked to create more and did so.

Maja, who looked more threatening than Jerome Sinclair whose hold up play was decent, had already hit the side netting following a McGeady centre when he equalised seven minutes later.

Skipper George Honeyman made it happen by darting beyond his man to the by-line, squaring across the six yard box where Maja was on hand to control and convert low inside the bottom corner with power and precision with six minutes left.

At that point Sunderland looked like they could go on to win it and they might have done had Power’s late header not been brilliantly blocked when it looked like it would find the net.

James said: “All we want to do is win games and you could see the reaction from everyone when the goal went in that we all tried to pick each other up, get us going.

“We have great team spirit and you could see we rallied. You just have to look at games like Wimbledon away, where we came from behind to win, it shows what we are made of. The gaffer has drilled it into us that we want to win every game. We go for the win in every game.

“We have to show the character we have got in every game, from the start. That’s the challenge, the mentality we have because we want to win every game, we want to be top. There would have been nothing better today than going top, that was the aim and that was the feeling.”

James felt that Wycombe did something different to the other teams that have visited the Stadium of Light this season, and it took some getting used to. He was at least, though, satisfied to have maintained the unbeaten run and avoided a second league defeat of the campaign.

He said: “It was frustrating because it was a different game plan to what we are used to facing here. We found it difficult at times to break them down, they let us have the ball at times.

“Second half we sussed out what they were doing, had more of a go and had good chances. We had some good ones first half but a shame we didn’t take them. When we went down it was good reward for the fight we showed to get something.

“It was hard to adjust to at first. It was something we addressed and we did our best, we got a bit of a reward even if we didn’t win it. Hopefully we can return to winning ways next week.”