Sunderland 0 Leeds United 0: James Trafford shows worth on not so super Sunday

Such records are, of course, team efforts, but Trafford pulled off four good saves on a day when the flight of the ball was hard to judge to secure his side's fifth already draw of the season.

Leeds are more of a Monday Night Football than a Super Sunday team having failed to win any of their previous eight matches in the prime television slot of the weekend.

A 0-0 by the banks of the Wear was hardly a classic, but at least there was Trafford's skills to admire. Thomas Tuchel has already parked Trafford’s tank on Jordan Pickford’s lawn – for possibly the first time the Wearsider has a genuine rival as England’s No 1.

The most expensive custodian in British football is certainly earning his keep, and making a team who struggle to score enough goals look to be at least be contenders to match the surprise European qualification their rivals from Wearside managed in May.

Leeds remain in seventh, which will mean Europa League football if they can maintain it.

After five games with the same XI, Daniel Farke made three changes at the Stadium of Light, Nico Elvedi's illness forcing him out and inside-forwards Noah Okafor and Anton Stach on the bench after being rated doubts in the build-up.

They started the brighter, as was always going to be important against a side who were in Poland on Thursday, but Jayden Bogle's shot went wide after Ao Tanaka won the ball high up was all they really had to show for it.

Their first effort on target would not com into the 56th minute – now that Tarik Muharemovic's header from a corner was in any way taxing for Robin Roefs. There would only be three more, two in the desperation minutes at the end of the game.

Instead, the two best chances of the first half fell to Brian Brobbey – making his return after an international break injury. On both occasions he was denied by Trafford.

Brobby's seventh-minute strike took a messy flight but still Trafford had to be at full stretch to turn it around the post. When Bogle's poor backpass sold him short in the 26th minute, the England goalkeeper had to be quick off his line to deny Brobbey.

Enzo le Fee but a free-kick into the wall after Nilson Angulo skipped past Jaka Bijol, only to b fouled by Ethan Ampadu.

But generally it was an anything but super Sunday, the two wide openings at either end of the stadium which turn it into a wind tunnel tossing litter around making for difficult conditions.

For his part, Trafford was keen to take the sting out of the game, dwelling on the ball whenever he had it, with Sunderland reluctant to get in his face.

Leeds started the second half well, but for longer and with more cutting edge than they had the first, yet still it was their goalkeeper who was the busiest against last season's surprise package, this term's early front-runners for the Premier League's wooden spoon as they look to juggle the demands of their first European campaign since the 1970s.

Good movement by Bogle created a chance for his fellow wing-back Gabriel Gudmundsson, but the Swede could not keep his volley down.

The shots Trafford saved four minutes either side of the hour both took deflection.

Angulo's took a nick off Bogle's Achilles, forcing his team-mate to really stretch, and his next effort at the end of a give-and-go also came off a defender.

Inbetween time Aaronson laid the ball off for Bogle, but when his shot was blocked, James Justin's curled too far wide.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin had a sniff of a chance in the 77th minute when Robin Roefs spilt a Tanaka shot from the D, but the goalkeeper and Luke O'Nien quickly pounced on the loose ball too to sniff it out.

Sunderland substitute Chewsoine Talbi looked like his mazy run would crate an 80th-minute chance, but Muharemovic tracked it, and made a well-timed tackle in the penalty area.

Only introduced in the 89th minute, North Shields-born Sean Longstaff did his best to spoil the home fans’ afternoon, but his long-range shot in the 90th minute was kept out by Roefs.

He swung at Okafor’s knock-down of an Ampadu cross in the fourth added minute, only for his shot to hit Lukas Nmecha. Okafor then blazed his effort when the ball came back in.

In truth, this was not a game deserving of a goal, just as Trafford was not a goalkeeper deserving to be beaten.

Sunderland: Roefs; Hume, Mukiele (Alderete 52), O'Nien, Reinildo; Xhaka, Sadiki; Rigg, le Fee (Diarra 78), Angulo (Talbi 79); Brobbey (Tutierov 65).

Unused substitutes: Methalie, Ahoka, Ellborg, Fofana, Riquelme.

Leeds United: Trafford; Justin, Bijol, Muharemovic; Bogle, Tanaka (Longstaff 89), Ampadu, Gudmundsson; Wilson (Stach 65), Aaronson (Okafor 65); Calvert-Lewin (Nmecha 85).

Unused substitutes: Zetterer, Bahoya, Bard, Gruev, Cresswell.

Referee: S Attwell (Nuneaton).