League One

Sunderland: Journalist praises Aiden McGeady after Cheltenham Town win

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Image for Sunderland: Journalist praises Aiden McGeady after Cheltenham Town win

Sunderland journalist Phil Smith has been sharing his praise for Black Cats winger Aiden McGeady and his latest performance for the Wearside club in their recent 5-0 win over Cheltenham Town.

This comes after Smith made an appearance on a recent episode of The Roar Podcast from the Sunderland Echo, where he spoke about a number of topics surrounding Lee Johnson’s side.

On the subject of their midweek win, in which McGeady managed to assist two of Sunderland’s goals on the night, Smith had this to say about his performance.

He said: “I thought [Cheltenham] was his best game of the season, very definitely – he had two assists. He could have had a couple more, he had that cross to the back post which Ross Stewart probably should have headed in, so I thought that was a really encouraging sign.

“It’s definitely a positive that he’s someone we’re talking about less – it’s not necessarily because he’s not playing well, it’s just because you’re not seeing players trying to find him on the ball all the time, even when it’s not the best option, there are more players in there with more confidence and taking the ball themselves.

“So I think it just shows that it’s a better-balanced side, and hopefully McGeady will just get sharper and sharper within that.”

TIF Thoughts on Phil Smith’s comments on McGeady and his performance against Cheltenham…

Sunderland signed McGeady back in the 2017 summer transfer window from Premier League club Everton for a fee of £252k.

Since then, the 35-year-old has made a total of 143 appearances for the Black Cats across all competitions, in which he has managed to score 35 goals and provide 33 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).

Taking into account how McGeady made more key passes (7) than any other Sunderland player in the game against Cheltenham (despite being substituted in the second half) and ultimately earned himself an overall match rating of 8.61/10 for his display, making him their third-highest-rated player on the day according to WhoScored, it’s easy to see why Smith was so happy with the winger in midweek.

Did McGeady have his best game of the season against Cheltenham?

Yes

Yes

No

No

In our view, if McGeady can keep delivering these sorts of performances for Sunderland on a consistent basis throughout the remainder of the campaign, he will give the club a great chance of securing promotion to the Championship, which they are currently on their way to doing with 22 points at the top of the table at present.

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