Sunderland 0 Cardiff 1: Highlights as Mark Harris goal gives visitors win after Anthony Patterson penalty save
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Tony Mowbray’s side were fortunate to still be level at half-time after Anthony Patterson saved Joe Ralls’ penalty.
Cardiff took the lead four minutes after the restart, though, as Mark Harris converted Mahlon Romeo’s low cross.
The hosts did apply some late pressure but couldn’t force an equaliser.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 0 Cardiff 1 (Harris, 49)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, O’Nien, Batth, Wright, Cirkin, Ba (Evans, 57), Neil (Pritchard, 57), Roberts (Bennette, 67), Amad, Clarke, Simms (Embleton, 74)
- Subs: Bass, Hume, Evans, Matete, Pritchard, Embleton, Bennette
- Cardiff XI: Allsop, Romeo, Ng, Kipre, Nkounkou, Wintle, Ralls, Ojo (Rinomhota, 74), Philogene (Sawyers, 58), O’Dowda, Harris (Watters, 58)
- Subs: Alnwick, Nelson, Sang, Sawyers, Rinomhota, Whyte, Watters
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Cardiff at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats have two more games before the international break and will be hoping to make it back-to-back wins following Wednesday’s victory at Huddersfield.
We’ll have all the build-up ahead of the match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates throughout the day.
Team news
As always, we’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Mowbray has said Ellis Simms could be ready to start today after coming off the bench at half-time against Huddersfield.
The striker missed seven matches with a toe issue but has now been named in the squad for two successive matches.
Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, Lynden Gooch and Dan Ballard all remain sidelined but are on track to return from injury setbacks after the World Cup break.
Jack Clarke is available again after serving a one-match suspension for picking up five yellow cards.
Mowbray on Cardiff
Here’s what Mowbray had to say about today’s opponents:
“We just have to keep going. Keep picking up points and winning games and let’s see where it takes us.
“There is an opportunity for us on Saturday to beat Cardiff who are not in that bracket of being in the Premier League the last two seasons, got parachute payments and got exceptionally good players.
“I think the turnover of their club was probably because they had some high earners and they needed to reset to Championship level funding. And yet to me, they look like a very well organised and decent football team.
“It will be a good game for us, a good test and one that we go into knowing that we play well and our top players perform at the level then we can win.”
How Cardiff are shaping up
Cardiff started the season with Steve Morrison in charge but are now being led by interim boss Mark Hudson and are 18th in the table.
To find out more, we caught up with Glen Williams from Wales Online on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.
Here’s what he said when asked about interim boss Hudson, who has now overseen eight matches:
“The big thing with Huds is that he has massive credit in the bank because he was club captain here and a legend in his playing days.
“He started really well and they were undefeated in his first three, two wins and a draw.
“Then to be fair they had three games where they just didn’t get the rub of the green. They had a disallowed goal against Coventry which cost them a point, then the two games after that against QPR and Swansea they had a player sent off in the 19th minute against QPR and 7th minute against Swansea.
“They lost to Watford on Tuesday night but actually looked pretty decent for the most part.”
Hudson on Sunderland
Cardiff will also be without striker Callum Robinson who is serving the final match of his three-game suspension following his red card against Swansea.
Here’s what the Cardiff boss Hudson had to say about Sunderland:
“It’s a tough place to go,”
“They’ve been getting crowds of around 40,000, so it will be a good experience for some of the players, and something to look forward to.
“It’s the third game in a week, so we’ve prepared as well as we can. We spoke about Sunderland yesterday, and we’re trying to put ourselves in a place where we can go there and get a result.
“They’re a good side, we’ve watched their strengths, and they’ve got players that can individually hurt you.
“We’ve got to be at our best. The performances have been there, it’s just the little moments that we can get better at.”
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; O’Nien, Batth, Wright, Cirkin; Evans, Neil; Roberts, Pritchard, Clarke; Simms
Predicted Cardiff XI: Allsop; Romeo, Ng, Kipre, Nkounkou; Wintle, Rinomhota, Ralls; Philogene, Harris, O’Dowda
Mowbray in his pre-match programme notes
“Today is our final home fixture ahead of the World Cup break and following Wednesday’s midweek victory at Huddersfield Town, we are looking for another three points.
“I feel our performance levels have been high during my time at the Club, but we were under par at the John Smith’s Stadium and we know we have to be better today.
“Huddersfield gave us plenty of problems and we weren’t good enough with or without the ball – in the first half particularly – but I thought defensively we were solid and Anthony Patterson made an important save just before the first goal.
“Patrick Roberts and Amad showed what they can do with quick passing and fast feet that cut teams open, and it was a well-taken finish by Alex Pritchard arriving from the opposite side before we added a second on the breakaway.
“It was great to win away from home and I was delighted that we found a way to get the three points, especially for the supporters that travelled.”