Rangers loanee Jordan Jones was hooked with 21 minutes still to play as Sunderland lost 2-0 at Lincoln City in their EFL League One playoff semi-final first leg.
Sunderland failed in each of the previous two seasons to earn promotion back to the Championship and they now face an uphill task to avoid a fourth campaign in the third tier.
A fourth-place finish in the regular season earned the Black Cats a semi-final tie against fifth-placed Lincoln, with the advantage of playing the second leg at the Stadium of Light.
The return of fans to the famous venue is something they’ll now need to take full advantage of, though, following a poor first leg performance.
Rangers loanee Jones was named in the starting XI on the right wing, as manager Lee Johnson selected a relatively attacking team.
Yet, Sunderland were unable to deliver in the final third, with a 48th-minute Jones shot from range that was tipped onto the bar by goalkeeper Josef Bursik when the scores were locked at 0-0, the closest they came to scoring.
The Bursik save may well have inspired his teammates, as just three minutes later, Lincoln took the lead through Tom Hopper.
Jones was then hooked for former Ross County star Ross Stewart in the 69th minute but the change didn’t work out for the visitors, with Lincoln doubling their advantage in the 77th minute courtesy of Brennan Johnson.
The Gers loanee and his teammates will need to regroup quickly, with the second leg set for Saturday afternoon.
A top performance from Jones in a do-or-die playoff match would do his chances of breaking back into Steven Gerrard’s plans for 2021/22 no harm, and one would think that a boost is required at this point, given that he’s contributed a solid but unspectacular three goals and four assists from 20 appearances during his loan stint.
In other news, an exciting Rangers-bound player netted a brace on Wednesday evening but his teammates let him down in a thrilling match.
