Sunderland's unbeaten streak reached 10 games, but the sparse, polite boos that echoed as the final whistle blew indicated that this was far from a joyous occasion on Wearside. Instead, their fifth consecutive draw against a highly efficient, albeit somewhat unambitious, opponent—well-versed in snatching unlikely points—resulted in Régis Le Bris's early pacesetters slipping to third in the Championship. West Brom's reward for their stubbornness, which frustrated the mildly disgruntled Stadium of Light season ticket holders, was a drop to seventh in the increasingly captivating second tier.
Carlos Corberán may soon need to decide if he wants to fill Leicester's managerial vacancy, but West Brom's highly sought-after head coach cut his usual fully committed, often highly agitated, technical-area figure as he watched the excellent Torbjørn Heggem frequently hold West Brom's makeshift defense together. “It was a very difficult game,” Corberán said. “Sunderland had a lot more chances than us; we achieved one point with a lot of hard work and resilience.”
A sanguine Le Bris proved typically realistic. “The players and I are feeling disappointed,” he said. “We dominated and had four or five chances but West Brom defended well. We're a young team and I'm very excited about our ability but we have to learn quickly.”
There was early upheaval when Corberán found himself forced into an unscheduled personnel revamp as Ousmane Diakité was injured in the warm-up, necessitating his replacement by a not yet properly fit Kyle Bartley. It proved a rare moment of minor drama as little else of note happened during the opening 45 minutes. Admittedly Josh Maja seemed keen to impress on his latest return to his old club but the nearest West Brom's largely service-starved leading scorer came to a goal was an early shot directed wide following his slick connection with a Tom Fellows cut-back.
With Bartley, still nursing a knee problem and replaced by a midfielder, Uros Racic, at half-time, initially holding his own in an extremely well-organised visiting backline, the majority of Sunderland's shots came from outside the area. Tellingly Wilson Isidor unleashed the sole first-half shot on target – a benign and easily saved deflected strike – as the home side's promising approach play invariably fizzled out around the 18-yard line.
Long before half-time the sense that West Brom, in particular, were playing with the handbrake on ensured it had all turned distinctly flat. Small wonder Corberán’s team have only 11 points to show for their nine-game unbeaten run. With two key promotion rivals in Sheffield United – who host Sunderland in an intriguing looking game at Bramall Lane on Friday night – and Burnley both winning, while latterly renascent Middlesbrough and Leeds were preparing for games on Wednesday night, Le Bris’s players strove to reaffirm their automatic promotion credentials.
Yet despite winning a stream of corners they could never quite make the most of such set pieces. It might have been different had Maja still been wearing red and white stripes but no current Sunderland player could quite make the most of some promising wing play from Patrick Roberts. Granted, Isidor did deposit the ball in Alex Palmer’s net after meeting Luke O’Nien’s cross but the striker was fractionally offside. Significantly that close call came at the conclusion of a rare highlight, namely a gorgeous move involving Jobe Bellingham, Dan Neil, Roberts and Chris Rigg.
A little later Rigg was clearly onside and his shot seemed goalbound but Alex Mowatt’s fine 11th-hour block ensured the impasse endured. After that Roberts sent an angled shot whizzing inches wide, while Dan Ballard’s last-ditch clearance off the line denied Lewis Dobbin a counter-attacking goal but a winner remained stubbornly elusive. “Bartley wasn’t fit to start and we ended up with a No 8 [Racic] playing centre-half,” Corberán said. “You can’t always win but all my players gave their best.”
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