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Sport
James Hunter

Sunderland 2-1 Blackburn Rovers player ratings as Stewart, Amad and Ballard star

Sunderland came from behind to beat Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light in the big Boxing Day game. The Black Cats gave themselves work to do after they fell behind inside the opening 20 minutes when Ross Stewart scored an unfortunate own-goal.

But Stewart wasted no time in making amends, winning a penalty just two minutes later which the Scotland international also converted. Sunderland were the better team throughout against Blackburn, but as the game entered injury-time it looked like they would have to settle for a point.

That was until Ellis Simms, who had only entered the action as a substitute ten minutes earlier, scored in the 91st minute to send the 43,000-strong crowd home happy. The win pushed Sunderland up to seventh place in the table, just a single point outside the top six, although that was before the bulk of this afternoon's Championship programme kicked off.

READ MORE: Ellis Simms scores dramatic late winner as Sunderland come from behind against Blackburn Rovers

Here's how our Sunderland AFC writer James Hunter rated the players.

Anthony Patterson 7

Not many saves to make, but was solid when he was called upon

Lynden Gooch 7

Caused Blackburn problems until he limped off with a hamstring problem

Dan Ballard 8

Excellent on his first start since August, made important tackles and provided the assist for Simms

Luke O'Nien 7

Hardly put a foot wrong

Dennis Cirkin 6

Fought a running battle with Hedges and stood up to it well, before going off injured soon after half-time

Corry Evans 7

Dictated the play in the middle of the park against his former club

Dan Neil 7

Has looked out of sorts of late, but this was a return to form for the youngster

Patrick Roberts 7

Tricky footwork opened up the Blackburn defence several times

Amad 8

Worked incredibly hard, and meant Blackburn could never relax when he was on the ball

Jack Clarke 6

A solid performance out on the left flank

Ross Stewart 8

Made up for his unluckly og by converting the penalty, and was excellent all afternoon on his first start since August

Subs

Trai Hume 6

For Cirkin 51mins. Picked up where Cirkin left off

Bailey Wright N/A

For Gooch 80mins.

Ellis Simms N/A

For Roberts 80mins.

Not used: Bass, Matete, Ba, Michut

READ MORE:

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