I think the club should either release him, or send him off to some doctor in USA to assess what's up with him. The stress fracture was understandable, but the kid has had about 5 injuries since. Whether it's a mental issue, or the lad's bod just isn't up to this level, we need to know because this is doing him and us no favours
SAFC U21 3-1 Nottingham Forest U21 Sunderland Under-21s ended their PL2 home campaign with a 3-1 victory over promotion-pushing Nottingham Forest to claim all three points in front of a vibrant Eppleton crowd. An early Tommy Watson goal put us ahead, Oil Hammond equalised for Forest before two stunning second-half strikes from Ellis Taylor and Ben Middlemas earned the young Black Cats a deserved victory. Dennis Cirkin and Joe Anderson both secured 90 minutes under their belts for Graeme Murty's side, as they maintain match sharpness for the first-team run-in. The hosts opened the scoring on 10 minutes with a well-taken move, as Watson collected Marshall Burke’s lofted ball over the Forest defence before cutting inside and firing low and hard past Aaron Butt. Sunderland came close to doubling their lead a few minutes later but Taylor somehow fired wide from six yards out. Forest levelled against the run of play when Hammond latched onto a loose ball after a lapse of concentration in the Sunderland defence and calmly slotted into Daniel Cameron’s bottom right-hand corner. Cameron was called into action five minutes later, pulling off a trio of saves in quick succession. Firstly, denying Esapa Osong from the edge of the box before pushing Hammond's drilled effort wide for a corner. The resulting corner was met by the head of Jamie McDonnell, the defender’s looping header was on target, but Cameron confidently commanded his area to deny the visitors again. The Black Cats continued to push forward in the closing stages of the first half, Harry Gardiner’s close-range shot and Taylor’s long-range attempt both failing to trouble Bott. Sunderland started the second half on the front foot coming within inches of retaking the lead, Caden Kelly manoeuvred space on the edge of the box but dragged his shot agonisingly wide of Bott’s far post. Taylor deservedly restored the host's lead on 64 minutes with a superb volley from 12 yards out after the visitors failed to clear their lines in the build-up. Murty’s side ramped up the pressure and notched their third goal of the evening on 83 minutes when Middlemas found Bott’s bottom right-hand corner with a speculative strike from 25 yards out. Forest desperately tried to get themselves back into the match, but Sunderland remained resilient to see out the final few minutes and end the visitor's 16-game unbeaten league run. The young Lads end the league season in a fortnight's time, taking on West Bromwich Albion at Hednesford's Keys Park. SAFC U21: Cameron, Crompton, Johnson, Anderson, Cirkin, Burke, Kelly, Taylor ©, Middlemas, Watson, Gardiner. Subs not used: Metcalf, Wilson, Scott, Jessup. Nottingham Forest U21: Bott, Abbott, Powell, Collins, Hammond, McDonnell, Perkins (Gardiner 74’), McAdam (Perry 74’), Osong, Hammond ©, Larsson (Gibson-Hammond 74’) Subs not used: Hammond, Thompson.
Anybody any idea on what has happened to Carney our goalkeeping captain, he has not played for weeks at any level as far as I can see. He started the season so well and has just vanished, or was he on the coach at Burnley, .
Just seen a photo of him at the open training session yesterday at the SOL so he is still around the first team, He looked a better bet to be No 2 this season from what I have seen of him which is not a lot tbh, and Bass has looked decent to be fair, but thanks for the reply.
He looked pretty good to me mate. Tall and very lean at the moment but once he bluks up a bit he will be a lot stronger. He was very nice on tbe ball and played a few nice diagonals to switch play. Didn't get flustered under pressure either. Only 21s footy of course but he looked fine to me.
A few of our lads looked to have beefed up a bit and it was definitely a performance with much more intensity last night. We weren't afraid to mix it and we played good football overall. Forest aren't a bad team either, they are 3rd or 4th I think.
Impressive result given a good number of that side (2 goalscorers if I’m right) are actually from the under 18s
And the u18s are flying. Next season we should be back on track with the 21s after what Donald did to them. We lost some talented lads over the last few years. I'm going to try and get to as many as I can at home next season, should be a better season than this one. Hopefully Murty stays as he has been linked with a move away.
