Jack Ross hails Sunderland’s Duncan Watmore

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Sunderland drew at home with Blackpool on Tuesday night.

Sunderland boss Jack Ross has told The Chronicle that he was impressed with Duncan Watmore’s performance against Blackpool last night after being recalled to the side.

The Black Cats were hoping to get back to winning ways after squandering two points late on at Oxford United on Saturday, but were left frustrated against a plucky Blackpool outfit.

Sunderland looked dangerous early on but went behind when Blackpool striker Armand Gnanduillet smashed a fine left-footed shot past Jon McLaughlin.

After a shocking Will Grigg miss, Sunderland rescued a point with 15 minutes to play as Jack Baldwin headed home, and 1-1 is how it finished as Sunderland suffered another frustrating result.

Sunderland sit four points adrift of the automatic promotion spots with a game in hand, so they aren’t in a terrible position, but two points from games against Oxford United and Blackpool hasn’t been ideal.

Grigg may have flopped in front of goal, but winger Duncan Watmore showed some promise as he seeks consistency after a host of injury problems in recent years.

After the game, Ross thought Watmore helped Sunderland be more creative and effective in the final third, something Ross has been seeking to fix for some time.

Ross added that Watmore is ‘different’ to his other attacking players thanks to his direct running, and praise his performance against Blackpool.

“I thought he [Watmore] was a big part of us being much more effective in the final third,” said Ross. “We have looked long and hard at how we do that, and we have been honest about the fact we haven’t created as much in the last five or six games as we had done previously.”

“The way Duncan plays the game is probably different to all our other attacking players. He’s looked better over the last few weeks in training, as he continues this long journey back from injury. I think it was a big step forward for him because he played a huge part in how we performed today,” he added.