
♏Tom Flanagan received praise on social media despite Sunderland’s 1-1 draw with Blackpool.
๊Sunderland were held to a 1-1 draw at home against Blackpool to leave them in 12th place. Charlie Wyke scored the equaliser for the Black Cats after Matty Virtue-Thick’s early strike put the visitors ahead.
🎃Phil Parkinson used a back three for Sunderland yesterday. With Jordan Willis injured and Joel Lynch on the bench, this presented an opportunity to Tom Flanagan.
Tom Flanagan impresses

🎀The 27-year-old has been heavily criticised in the recent past for his performances for Sunderland. This has cost him a place in the starting line-up for most of this season.
🐷Yesterday, Flanagan played his 11th game of the season and his seventh in the league. He has now played two in a row as Parkinson looks to use the Northern Ireland international more often.
🐎Flanagan was impressive for Sunderland operating on the right-hand side of a back three. With Alim Ozturk and Laurens De Bock alongside him, Sunderland kept the Blackpool attack relatively quiet.
Here are some tweets about Flanagan’s display.
𓆏Got to say Tom Flanagan has looked half decent today after I thought he was the worst centre half to play for safc. Right side of a back 3 may suit him going forward.
— Lee Burrow (@Kendalbuzz)
▨I thought he was our MOTM by an absolute mile. Thought he didn’t put a foot wrong all game. For me 8 or 9 out of 10.
— Jordan Ramsey (@RamseySAFC)
⛎And me… and I’m not a Flanagan fan at all, but had decent game
— Peter (@pjmaddison22)
🍌Couldn’t agree more with this, I thought that was one of flanagans best games in a Sunderland shirt and looked fairly solid as did De Bock
— Alex Catcherside (@AlexCatcherside)
That’s very very harsh on Flanagan…
— Nick (@nicholaswilso11)
꧒Flanagan struggled with the ball are u stupid he was doing cruyff turns in he’s own box
— Johno?️? (@sajohnson1111)