How it played out as Sunderland get back to winning ways at Sheffield Wednesday

Sunderland swept aside a woeful Sheffield Wednesday outfit to quickly get back to winning ways in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Friday night.

Wednesday had come into the game without a win in the opening weeks fo the campaign and early goals from Dan Ballard and Jack Clarke meant they never threatened to upset a composed Black Cats side.

Clarke added a second from the penalty spot ten minutes from the break to give Tony Mowbray's team a lead they were never likely to relinquish in a sedate second half.

An explosive statement from Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri, threatening to pull future funding of the club should fan unrest continue, overshadowed the build up to this game and the host's problems mounted as influential duo Barry Bannan and Josh Windass were ruled out due to injury.

That the hosts needed a fast start to get the wary Hillsborough crowd behind them was obvious. Instead, they were two down before ten minutes were up. They actually started in the ascendancy, but gifted a free kick when a poor pass out form the back allowed Sunderland to steal a cheap free kick. That was deflected wide, but Dan Ballard's run from the corner was poorly tracked and the defender stooped to meet Pritchard's dangerous corner.

The second was a stunner, started by a superb switch of play from Burstow out to the left flank. From there Jack Clarke did the rest, driving inside his marker and driving a low strike into the far corner in trademark fashion.

At times Wednesday moved the ball through the lines nicely, but their utter passivity out of possession meant the counter was almost always on. There were signs of life as Buckley drew a scrambling save from Patterson, Musaba curling an effort over from the edge of the box from the following corner.

That perhaps served as a warning against any complacency in Sunderland's ranks, but they always looked likely to score more and did so when neat play down the left allowed Hume to feed Burstow. From there it was superb from the loanee, spinning his marker and leaving him with no choice but to haul him down inside the box. Clarke stepped up and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.

The half was played out in front of a crowd part irate and part despairing, chanting for the exits both of owner Chansiri and head coach Xisco Munoz.

Sunderland started the second half even sharper than the first, but were indebted to a strong save from Patterson to deny his namesake in a rare Sheffield Wednesday foray forward. Patrick Roberts was proving a constant thorn in the home defence, but just couldn't find the finishing touch from three superb runs. Sunderland continued to threaten regularly, Jobe curling an effort from 20 yards just wide of the far post.

At this stage a further glut of goals seemed inevitable but perhaps unsurprisingly, the game began to fizzle out somewhat as substitutions broke up the contest and eyes perhaps began to turn to challenges ahead.

It was Wednesday who went closest to scoring when Byers met an excellent cross into the box, but Patterson blocked well to protect his side's clean sheet.

Sunderland XI: Patterson; Hume (Seelt, 85), Ballard, O'Nien, Huggins; Neil, Jobe; Roberts (Ba, 67), Pritchard (Aouchiche, 67) , Clarke (Rigg, 75); Burstow (Rusyn, 75)

Subs: Bishop, Triantis, Taylor, Hemir

Sheffield Wednesday XI: Vasquez, Diaby (Palmer, 79), Byers, Gregory (Fletcher, 79), Paterson, Valentin (Delgado, 72), Bernard, Buckley (Gassama, 72), Hendrick, Famewo, Musaba

Subs: Dawson, Vaulks, Iorfa, Bakinson, Smith

Bookings: Diaby, 62 Delgado, 83

Attendance: 25,987