Sunderland fell to a narrow 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Swansea City in the Sky Bet Championship.
In a first 45 dominated by the visitors, Ronald’s brace gave the Swans a two-goal cushion, captain Luke O’Nien pulled one back inside the final quarter but the visitors hung on to secure all three points.
Callum Styles made his Black Cats debut in replace of the injured Jack Clark as interim Head Coach Mike Dodds opted for four changes in total. Jenson Seelt, Abdoullah Ba and Nazariy Rusyn were all recalled to the starting XI for the suspended Dan Ballard, Mason Burstow and Romaine Mundle.
After a nervy start, Rusyn came closest to breaking the deadlock inside the first 15 minutes after latching onto Jobe’s neat through-ball, but the striker’s effort comfortably cleared Carl Rushworth’s crossbar.
Ba was next to sting the hands of Rushworth from the edge of the box after skipping past his man and cutting in from the left following some neat footwork from Jobe.
The visitors responded instantly on 19 minutes and scored with their first shot of the match, firstly Anthony Pattison pulled off a terrific point-blank save to stop Liam Cullen’s header, but the ball kindly rolled into the path of Ronald for a simple tap-in.
Patterson was called into action minutes later with an unorthodox fist to deny Przemyslaw Placheta swirling strike from 18-yards.
The Swans looked dangerous on the attack and should have doubled their advantage through Placheta halfway through the first time, but the unmarked winger fired over with the goal gaping and only Patterson to beat.
Swansea doubled their lead on 28 minutes when Ronald was again found in space by experienced midfielder Joe Allen before coolly dispatching his shot past Patterson from 12 yards out.
Ronald should have added a third on the half-hour mark after collecting Allen’s dinked ball inside the Black Cats’ penalty area but could only watch as his effort rolled agonisingly wide of Patterson’s far post.
In a period of sustained pressure from the Welsh club, firstly, Patterson denied Liam Cullen from close-range before remaining alert moments later to push Placheta’s deflected shot onto his near post.
Rusyn forced Rushworth into a routine stop inside first-half added time after creating space on the visitor’s 18-yard box, but the Swans stopper was down quickly to cover his tame effort.
Pierre Ekwah's curling attempt from range came within a whisker of finding Rushworth’s top left-hand corner as the hosts applied the pressure inside the opening exchanges of the second half.
In search of a way back into the match, Sunderland continued to apply pressure through Rusyn, but Rushworth was again equal to his drilled attempt from a tight angle.
Sunderland found a breakthrough on 77 minutes when O’Nien lost his man inside the Swansea danger area and directed Ekwah’s free-kick past a helpless Rushworth with a powerful header.
In search of an equaliser in the dying embers of the match, Sunderland almost levelled deep into added time when an unlikely Patterson header forced Rushworth into a full-stretch stop from six yards out – in a manic final few second, Luke Williams’ side held firm to secure victory.
The Lads are back in action next weekend when they travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich City in the Sky Bet Championship.
SAFC XI: Patterson, Hume, O’Nien ©, Seelt, Hjelde (Aouchiche 84’), Neil, Ekwah, Ba (Rigg 71’), Jobe, Styles (Mundle 60’), Rusyn (Hemir 71’)
Subs not used: Bishop, Pembele, Burstow, Kelly, Lavery.
SCFC XI: Rushworth, Naughton (Cooper 89’), Cabango, Wood, Tymon, Allen (Fulton 63’), Grimes, Ronald (Darling 89’), Paterson (Yates 63’), Placheta, Cullen (Patino 79’)
Subs not used: Fisher, Kukharevych, Sagoe Jr, Lissah.
Attendance: 41,777