The Black Cats suffered a shock 2-0 League One defeat to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday with Kyle Lafferty enduring a night to forget.
Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson felt he had no choice but to sub in-form striker Kyle Lafferty midway through Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Bristol Rovers, speaking to the Echo.
Just three days after opening his account for the Black Cats with a clinical brace against Gillingham, an experienced Northern Ireland international endured a night to forget at the Memorial Ground.
Sunderland’s winless run continued as they suffered a shock defeat to a League One outfit who had previously gone 15 games without tasting success. And there we were thinking Black Cats were supposed to be lucky.
A pair of Jonson Clarke-Harris goals made the difference with Sunderland failing to muster a fightback once Lafferty had been hauled off at half-time, never to return.
Though Parkinson has no regrets about his decision to remove the 32-year-old from the firing line.
“Lafferty, I brought him off at half-time because I thought he was going to get sent off,” the coach explained. “I think he was one moment away from coming off.
“He’s a player who did so well for us at the weekend, and that really summed up the evening’s work for us.”
Sunderland are now four games without a win, picking up two points from a possible 12 to drop out of the play-off places at a crucial stage of the season.
After collapsing in a disastrous end to the 2018/19 campaign under Jack Ross, you could understand why many on Wearside might be suffering from a nasty case of déjà vu.
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