Sunderland 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0: Story of the night as Ross Stewart goal puts Cats ahead in League One play-off semi-final
Sunderland will take a 1-0 first-leg lead to Sheffield Wednesday after Ross Stewart scored the only goal of the game at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland had chances to double their lead in the second half as Alex Pritchard hit the crossbar.
The hosts were also forced to defend their advantage in the closing stages but held onto their clean sheet.
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Hide AdHere’s how the match played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Stewart, 45) Sheffield Wednesday 0
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Wright, Batth, Cirkin, Gooch, Evans, O’Nien, Clarke (Doyle, 90+3), Roberts (Embleton, 81), Pritchard (Matete, 81), Stewart
- Subs: Hoffmann, Doyle, Hume, Embleton, Neil, Matete, McGeady
- Sheffield Wednesday XI: Peacock-Farrell, Palmer, Storey, Dean, Hutchinson, Johnson, Byers, Luongo, Bannan, Berahino (Windass, 56), Gregory
- Subs: Wildsmith, Hunt, Dunkley, Dele-Bashiru, Mendez-Laing, Windass, Paterson
Clarke has improved this second half. Playing on the left, he seems much keener to close things down and almost forces a mistake from Bailey Peacock-Farrell
Sunderland have been in control of this match but you sense Sheffield Wednesday may be set for a spell in possession. Alex Neil’s men could do with keeping the ball for a while after a couple miniutes of intense pressing.
Wednesday have made their first change with Windass replacing Berahino.