Sunderland player Luke O’Nien has jokingly mocked rivals attacker Ashley Barnes after the two clashed in a recent Championship game.
What’s the latest on Luke O’Nien and Sunderland?
In their latest outing, the Black Cats managed to do their pursuit of a potential top-six finish a favour as they picked up an impressive point on the road.
Indeed, travelling away to Turf Moor to take on Championship leaders Burnley, Sunderland fought well to keep a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw.
As a result, Tony Mowbray and his side are now seven points behind Blackburn Rovers who are sitting in the last promotion play-off spot.
During the game, however, Barnes and O’Nien challenged for the ball and it seems the Burnley man left his mark on the Sunderland 28-year-old.
Indeed, in a funny post made on Instagram, O’Nien shared a picture of the potentially painful incident.
He also added the caption: “Lads dug deeper than Ashley Barnes fingers up my nose last night.”
Did O’Nien play well for Sunderland?
It’s safe to say O’Nien – who earns around £6000 per week – was actually pretty important in this draw as he was praised for his efforts with an eight out of ten score in the Chronicle Live player ratings (which was the best in the team).
Indeed, journalist James Hunter was keen to dish out the plaudits, noting O’Nien “moved back into central defence and was outstanding alongside [Danny] Batth.”
The same couldn’t really be said for Burnley forward Barnes who didn’t impress quite as much during his battle against the Sunderland players.
For instance, he was handed just a 6.5/10 in the Burnley Express player rating as journalist Dan Black explained his troubles on the night.
He wrote: “The striker’s reaction said it all after he’d lifted an effort over the crossbar from Josh Brownhill’s hooked pass in the first half. He’s now without a goal in six appearances, but brings far more to the team than his finishing alone. Uses the ball well, influences play in the number 10 role, though he came up against a determined competitor in Danny Baath.”
In the end, it’s not a bad point for both teams as the Clarets remain 11 points clear at the top of the table while SAFC performed well and got their reward at a very difficult venue.
And it’s great to see O’Nien was able to see the funny side of things after the game, despite this potentially painful incident.
