Sunderland were handed a major setback to their promotion ambitions this season on Saturday as they fell to a frustrating 1-0 defeat against Charlton Athletic.

Lee Johnson’s side went into the game aiming to build on the back-to-back wins they secured away at Gillingham and Crewe Alexandra to maintain the pressure on the teams around them in the League One table.

However, there was always the chance that Charlton could potentially turn up at the Stadium of Light and produce a shock result considering they decided to part ways with Nigel Adkins ahead of the match.

The Addicks managed to get a major response from their players under the caretaker charge of Johnnie Jackson to secure a crucial win.

The Black Cats will need to show a swift response to this defeat after Jayden Stockley’s second half effort proved to be the difference between the two teams on the day.

That was a very controversial moment considering the forward was lucky not to be sent off earlier in the game.

Johnson will have learnt a lot about his players following this setback against Charlton on Saturday that he will need to now put into practice over the next few games.

With that in mind, we take a look at THREE things we clearly learnt about Sunderland against Charlton…

Aiden McGeady not yet at his best following injury setback

One thing that stood out for Sunderland during their defeat against Charlton was that Aiden McGeady did not have as much of a positive influence on proceedings as he normally would do for the Black Cats.

The playmaker had only just returned to action from his recent injury setback in midweek for the win at Crewe where he played 74 minutes and grabbed his fourth assist in League One for Sunderland this season.

Johnson might well have been better off easing McGeady back to fitness and giving the likes of Leon Dajaku or Lynden Gooch the chance to start in his place.

However, you can understand why the Black Cats manager felt it was hard to leave out the attacker considering the quality he often brings to the table.

McGeady will get a lot better as he gains full fitness in the coming matches and Sunderland need him to get back towards the sort of form he produced in the second half of last term.

He was pretty much unplayable during that spell, but so far this term he has not been able to reach the same sort of level on a consistent basis.

 

 

Aiden O’Brien has done well recently but a rest now could be needed

Over the last few weeks, O’Brien has been a strong performer for Sunderland during a period where they have been without the likes of McGeady, Gooch, Nathan Broadhead and Dajaku through injury issues.

That has handed the attacker a lifeline for his Sunderland career after he was so nearly shipped out on loan to Doncaster Rovers during the last day of the summer transfer window.

It is a lifeline that O’Brien took well in recent fixtures. He had even managed to fire home his first league goal of the campaign during the Black Cats’ 2-1 win at Gillingham.

Against Charlton though, O’Brien did not do enough when he had the ball in dangerous positions at times with him not taking the right option in terms of his final end product.

Considering the likes of Gooch, McGeady and Dajaku are all now fit and available for Johnson to call upon, it might be time for O’Brien to drop out of the starting line-up once again.

That is not to say though that he can not still be a vital part of the squad for the rest of the campaign. Sunderland certainly should not be shipping him out in January.

Sunderland finally show vulnerability at the Stadium of Light

Heading into their clash with Charlton on Saturday, Sunderland were aiming to maintain their impressive 100% home record in League One this season.

That run of form at the Stadium of Light has helped to keep the Black Cats right up amongst the automatic promotion chasers so far this term.

Last season, Sunderland drew eight and lost six of their 23 home fixtures in League One. That played a major role in ruling them out of automatic promotion as they had to once again settle for a place in the play-offs.

So far this term, Johnson’s side had shown no real signs of the same vulnerabilities that they had shown on their own soil last term for much of the campaign.

However, against Charlton for the first time they did not look like they were ever going to be able to do enough to take all three points.

It is of course only one game, but their lack of cutting edge at times in the final third against a well-drilled Charlton side is something that they need to work on to avoid them dropping more points at home in the coming weeks.