Denver Hume shone at left-back as the Black Cats thrashed Tranmere Rovers 5-0 at the Stadium of Light to secure their biggest League One win.
The records tumbled during Phil Parkinson’s home debut as Sunderland manager on Tuesday night.
Their first five-goal win since Roy Keane’s Black Cats thumped Luton Town all the way back in 2007, and their first clean sheet of the season to boot. Talk about a ‘new manager bounce’; Sunderland looked rejuvenated and reborn in their first game at the Stadium of Light in the post-Ross era, putting poor Tranmere Rovers to the sword with a thumping 5-0 triumph.
The injury-stricken Duncan Watmore was the star of the show, scoring one and assisting the other to remind everyone what Sunderland have been missing over the last few years. Chris Maguire, Lynden Gooch, Luke O’Nien and even Will Grigg, six months without a League One goal, got on the scoresheet too.
But Sunderland fans, revelling in their best performance since they dropped down to the third tier in 2018, were quick to point out a much-improved display from homegrown left-back Denver Hume as well.
A 21-year-old who looked all at sea in an ill-fitting wing-back role under Jack Ross produced arguably his best performance in red and white thanks to a new-look 4-2-3-1 formation which allowed him to get forward at will.
The new formation appears to suit Hume down to the ground and he is just one of many who already looks like a new man under a new manager.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
