Chris Mepham admits he was slightly surprised to see his centre-back partner Luke O’Nien take Sunderland’s penalty against Millwall on Saturday. However, the Wales international won’t be nominating himself for the next one!
After Patrick Roberts and Wilson Isidor had both missed the spot for the Black Cats this season, O’Nien took responsibility against the Lions but was also denied, meaning Sunderland have now missed four penalties on the bounce.
Regis Le Bris admitted after Saturday’s game that Sunderland’s penalty failures are a “problem” he will look to get to the bottom of, with talks planned at the Academy of Light this week to determine who’ll step up next time a spot-kick is awarded.
But Mepham won’t be putting his hand up.
“I’ll probably take myself out of that situation,” he laughed.
The defender added: “I was a little bit surprised (that O’Nien took it) but at the same time, knowing the amount of work Luke puts in and the amount of extras, focusing on his technique and his striking of the ball, he’s probably arguably the best to step up and take a penalty so I didn’t have any doubts.
“But it’s been a weird one with penalties this season; we’ve been unfortunate.”
Saturday’s miss from the spot didn’t matter, with Trai Hume’s first half goal enough to secure all three points against Millwall.
It was just a second clean sheet in 11 games for Sunderland, with the shut-out celebrated in the dressing room.
Mepham said: “I don’t think defensively we’ve been bad but we’ve probably come away as a team a bit from what got us to where we are.
“That’s something we had in our heads before this game, doing the basics well and getting back to where we were at the start of the season, being so difficult to break down.”
While Mepham and O’Nien have played plenty of football as a pairing this season, Saturday’s backline had a new look to it, with Trai Hume shifting over to left-back and Alan Browne covering at right-back.
It was a new position for the midfielder and Mepham was enormously impressed by how he handled it.
“I thought he was our best player,” he said.
“The way he slotted in. You know his experience at this level so there aren’t any question marks but for him to make it look so comfortable, you would never have thought he was a centre midfielder playing there.
“He was a pleasure to play alongside. He’s played a lot of games and you could see his know-how.”
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