Sunderland 1 Gillingham 0: Story of the day after late Nathan Broadhead winner sends Alex Neil's side into the play-off places

Sunderland left it late to beat Gillingham 1-0 at the Stadium of Light.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Nathan Broadhead came off the bench to head home a stoppage-time winner when he converted Elliot Embleton’s cross.

The result moved the Black Cats upto sixth in the League One table with six games remaining.

Here’s how the game played out:

Patrick Roberts.Patrick Roberts.
Patrick Roberts.

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Sunderland AFC coverage 365 days a year .

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor

RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Broadhead, 90+5) Gillingham 0

Key Events

  • Sunderland XI: Patterson, Winchester (Gooch, 69), Batth, Wright, Cirkin, Evans, O’Nien (Embleton, 69) , Clarke, Pritchard (Broadhead, 69), Roberts, Stewart
  • Subs: Hoffmann, Xhemajli, Neil, Matete, Embleton, Gooch, Broadhead
  • Gillingham XI: Chapman, Jackson, Ehmer, Masterson, Tucker, Tutonda, Lee, Chambers (Reeves, 73), Thompson, Oliver, Kelman (Akehurst, 89)
  • Subs: Dahlberg, Maghoma, Akehurst, Reeves, Dickson-Peters

Here’s what the Black Cats boss had to say about today’s opponents:

“I think there has been a fundamental change there since Neil Harris has gone in.

“I have probably watched five games. I was at the game on Saturday against Accrrington when they beat them, I watched them against Sheffield Wednesday when the drew 0-0.

“I watched them against Ipswich, against us the last time we played them.

“They are a difficult team to beat and haven’t conceded a lot of goals. Defensively they have been strong and they have a threat in transition on the counter attack.

“They are the things we need to guard against and make sure we try and perform well to create as many opportunities as we can.”

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.

Nathan Broadhead (hamstring) and Alex Pritchard (ankle) have returned to training following injury setbacks and could be involved today.

Defender Danny Batth is also available again after missing the last few weeks with an ankle issue.

Black Cats boss Alex Neil has admitted that Aiden McGeady is facing a battle to play for Sunderland again this season due to a knee issue.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s League One fixture against Gillingham.

The Black Cats have just seven games left as they try to finish in the play-offs.

We’ll have all the build-up ahead of today’s match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.