SUPPORTIVE NEWS: Sunderland Afc Fans sent their full Love for the Team.admits amazing performance

I was buzzing to get back from Abu Dhabi to see the game and witness the ‘Young Mackems’ in full flow in an unreal atmosphere at the Stadium of Light.

It was a typical Wear-Tees derby, with not much flow early on, but once we settled and started pinging passes around, we definitely had their lot chasing shadows. Chris Mepham and Luke O’Nien looked assured at the back during their first game together, but that’s what you’d like to expect with a Welsh international and seasoned Sunderland regular.

It was also the best performance of this season by Dan Neil. He looked much calmer on the ball and even more deliberate when making a pass. He broke up play throughout and played some lovely flighted balls out to Romaine Mundle on the wing during the second half.

Jobe just gets better every week, doesn’t he? The way he uses his frame to shield the ball and dummy his marker by feinting one way and driving the other is top class!

Mundle and Patrick Roberts on either wing is brilliant to watch.

Mundle’s the more direct of the two and you never know what Roberts is going to do, so the ‘Mini Messi’ nickname has never been more true.

I feel like Eliezer Mayenda could’ve tried to get on the ball more, as when he gets it to feet and turns at his man, it’s frightening. He had the one good run in the first half but was near enough invisible for the rest of the game?

What people might not see on television is how he directs, encourages and assures people. I lost count of the amount of times he kept telling players to ‘keep your head’ or directing them into positions.

He’s a seventeen year old lad with a veteran’s mindset, and that finish was pure filth.

For me, Saturday felt like another big step forward as Sunderland’s new era under Régis Le Bris continues to take shape.

I was confident that we’d bounce back from our defeat to Plymouth, but I felt that if we were going to win the game, our attitude had to be spot on and our application had to match and ultimately better Middlesbrough’s.

On both counts, we put an enormous tick in the box.

The players emptied the tanks, worked incredibly hard for each other, and Chris Rigg’s goal was a piece of improvised brilliance that showed, once again, how talented he is and why he’s rumoured to be being watched by teams at home and abroad.

Romaine Mundle’s performance was excellent, Chris Mepham slotted in nicely, and Jobe, as you rightly highlight, is just going from strength to strength under Le Bris.

All in all, a thoroughly satisfying day, a great way to make up for the disaster of the corresponding fixture of last season, and I’m glad you had the chance to see it in person.