Crewe Alexandra 2-2 Sunderland AFC
Sunderland rescued a point late on as they drew 2-2 with Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road.
Goals from Chris Porter in the 29th minute and Tom Lowery in the 38th minute gave Crewe a 2-0 going into half time.
Sunderland’s substitute Jordan Jones scored in the 75th minute and Chris Maguire scored in the seventh minute of injury time.
Lee Johnson made one change to the side that beat Fleetwood, with Josh Scowen replacing Grant Leadbitter.
Crewe started the game brightly and eventually found a breakthrough when Mandron played a ball across the box, finding Porter to tap in the opener.
Mandron continued to cause problems for Sunderland and he beat his man to find space for another cross, and Lowery was there to double their lead.
Johnson made a quadruple substitution in the 59th minute to change Sunderland’s fortunes, and Jones, Maguire, Grant Leadbitter and Jack Diamond came on.
Leadbitter was only on the pitch for five minutes and was forced off when he went down with a shoulder injury causing him a lot of pain, so Carl Winchester came on to replace him.
Jones soon had the beating of his man and in the 75th minute, he cut inside onto his right foot and fired a great effort into the far top corner.
The Black Cats dominated the final third of the game and in the seventh minute of added time, Maguire unleashed a fantastic volley from the edge of the box to level the scoring.
Sunderland almost found a winner. Maguire’s cross was met by Winchester, whose header went just over the bar.
Sunderland have a big week ahead to regain ground on their promotion rivals with games against Swindon and Rochdale, two teams in a relegation dogfight.
