Alex Neil says Sunderland's 'little magician' Patrick Roberts is coming into his own and can be a key man in Sunderland's run-in. January signing Roberts arrived short of gametime and has had to gradually build his match fitness.
But the former Manchester City man completed his first full 90 minutes for the Black Cats in yesterday's goalless draw at Lincoln City, turning in a man of the match performance in the process. He was the architect of many of Sunderland's best chances, albeit Neil was left frustrated at his side's inability to convert their dominance into goals.
Roberts' display playing off Ross Stewart up front was still a major positive, however, and the signs are that the 25-year-old could play an important part as Sunderland look to secure a place in the play-offs and a shot at promotion. Neil grinned: "He's a little magician, isn't he?
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"I thought his quality was great. We've had to work him to get him to this point in terms of giving him enough minutes and building him up, but he has been showing signs of coming alive over the last few weeks and I certainly think he came alive yesterday - I thought he was excellent.
"I think we've managed him really well, because he has completed the full 90 minutes - if somebody had said that to me three weeks ago, I wouldn't have believed them because he's struggled for fitness and he hadn't played a lot of minutes. But when he is fit and firing, he's a great player to watch.
"If you're a fan, he gets you off your seat. He's really exciting, he drifts past people, he sees passes that others don't see. He was excellent."
Sunderland's all-round performance was good at Sincil Bank, although Neil admitted the scoreline was disappointing. The Black Cats remain sixth in the table but they did not take advantage of the fact that several of their play-off rivals - Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford United, and Wycombe - all dropped points.
Captain Corry Evans went closest to breaking the deadlock for Sunderland when he hit the post in the second half, and Neil praised the Northern Ireland international for the way he held the midfield together. "He gives us experience in there and, with Dan Neil next to him, we've got a good range," said Neil.
"You could see we wanted to flood that central area and dominate the ball, which we did, and create chances off the back of it. The gameplan and the structure and the strategy all worked, but the final little bit is putting the ball in the back of the net and we didn't do that as well as we know we can."
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