Whenever Sunderland look to be full of confidence again and ready to put together a positive sequence of results in the Championship, another bump in the road arrives for the Black Cats.
Millwall secured their status as a second-tier club away at the Stadium of Light by winning 1-0, benefitting from a charitable home side who let the Lions score their only shot on target to win by the skin of their teeth.
Mike Dodds will know that these two games to end the season he has to manage in the interim hot-seat are likely to be his last, with the man he surprisingly picked up top to lead the line against the visitors from South London also resigned to the fact he could be exiting this summer.
Bradley Dack’s performance vs Millwall in numbers
Bradley Dack’s inclusion in Dodds’ XI on Saturday was a surprising one, considering the former Blackburn Rovers attacker has been in and around the treatment room at the Wearside club more than actually playing on the pitch this season.
Missing large chunks of the campaign owing to a recurring thigh issue, this was Dack’s 16th Championship appearance for the Black Cats and a frankly unmemorable one at that.
The injury-prone 30-year-old would only last 45 minutes before being hauled off by Dodds, with the ex-Riversiders man mustering up just 11 touches of the ball as an isolated attacker for the Black Cats.
Dack would also fail to fire a single effort at the Millwall goal from his dismal run-out at the Stadium of Light, mustering up two key passes but struggling to really pose a goalscoring threat himself up top.
The Sunderland number 46 would be sacrificed for a tactical switch as stated by Dodds at full-time, but his below-par display must have also underwhelmed the stand-in Black Cats boss enough to make that decision at the break.
