Dion Charles inspires Bolton rout as sorry Sunderland are hit for six

If Sunderland’s recent history is littered with embarrassments, this was another candidate for the title of the new low. They can seem to be slumming it in League One, but they slumped to their heaviest ever defeat in third-tier football. In a meeting of the inspired and the insipid, Bolton’s third win in a week at least suggested League One has some restorative powers for them. For Sunderland, it seems the land of broken dreams and an ignominious exile from their natural terrain looks like to continue.

Bolton could savour a demolition, orchestrated by a recent arrival who highlighted the shift in their fortunes. A ground that hosted Atletico Madrid in 2008 will stage Accrington in April. Bolton used to sign from Real Madrid. Now they have recruited Accrington’s Northern Ireland international Dion Charles and the striker, one of six January signings, scored his second and third goals for his new employers. He ran Sunderland ragged. The Black Cats’ ineptitude was epitomised by Danny Batth, donating Bolton’s fifth goal with a spectacular diving header.

Chalk it up, perhaps, to the curse of Ian Evatt. In October, Bolton’s manager branded his team the best in League One and they promptly went on a losing run. This week, he declared Sunderland were the division’s best footballing side. They scarcely looked it as they received a suitably windswept welcome near the Pennine Moors.

If Bolton’s 19-year-old goalkeeper James Trafford could claim the assist for their opener, so could a gust. Young Trafford’s punt forward lured his Sunderland counterpart Thorben Hoffmann off his line, held up in the gale and allowed Charles to nip in and lob him, though the wind made a valiant effort to stop the ball from crossing the line.

Sunderland