'Masterclass' - Sunderland win away at Coventry City for first time since 1985 - what supporters are saying

Sunderland will take a 2-1 lead to the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night after winning at the CBS Arena on Friday evening, with fans quick to react to the victory.

Coventry City dominated possession throughout the game, but Sunderland, by and large, kept them at arm’s length, taking a lead in the second half against the run of play through Wilson Isidor. Jack Rudoni replied almost immediately, and though the hosts pushed hard for a winner, Eliezer Mayenda capitalised on a poor backpass to seal the win late on.

Here, we take a look at how Sunderland fans reacted to the game against Coventry City on Friday night at the CBS Arena as Sunderland won for the first time at on Sky Blues’ soil in 40 years:

Chris said: “Le Bris was very lucky today, I'd say, 2nd best all game and gifted two goals. Not a pleasant watch, let's hope they come out and try to play football in the 2nd leg for the neutral.”

Dav added: “Most definitely not over but well done lads! Have to admit the result surprises me. Keep up the winning against Cov til the next final whistle, please!

Another user added: “Regis got it spot on tonight!! Mayenda ran his heart out, big DB absolutely solid!!”

Ian Crow added: “RLB tactical masterclass. Can we flick that switch? Oh yes, we can. Defensively immense, Ballard won everything they threw at him, clear MOTM, and Mayenda and Isidor, what a time to get back scoring. HT in the tie, still job to do, but we take a lead from the CBS. GERRIN!!!”

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TJ Brown said: “Game Plan was to sit back and counter, which we did, and it worked. They didn’t really look like scoring.”

Gav said: “Tactical masterclass, more importantly we played as a unit, I had a feeling Mayenda would score i put the bet on 5 mins before.”

Chris said: “90+7 minutes played in that game. Sunderland completed 98 passes, or almost exactly one pass a minute. Scored two goals and pulled off the perfect game plan. Beautiful.”

Sam said: “Regis Le Bris absolute masterclass tonight. Tactically spot on, best thing to happen to Sunderland recently so hopefully the fickle fans calling for his head the other week have woken up. Just shows what Le Fee can do in the middle of the park when given the chance.”

What did Le Bris say after the game against Coventry City?

Le Bris admitted that he had been uncomfortable in the first half with Coventry’s dominance down their right flank but believed his half-time tweaks proved key.

“We did really well this season and of course, the last period was a little bit different but it was our plan to refresh our squad to create the condition to have the full squad available,” Le Bris said. You saw how important it was today, the energy and the commitment was there. You need this in play-off football.

“I was not really comfortable in the first half, they overloaded their right side and we were outnumbered. I think it was a little bit tough for us. We fixed the problem during the half-time tweak so even if we conceded crosses and throw ins in the second half, the balls we were recovering were different. They were better for us and we felt it was possible to create the link to counter attack. This was our game plan because we knew have those threats with our forwards. They can manage big spaces and they showed that it was possible.

“It's tough to create this mindset to defend the box to be fair but it's a really strong quality of this team,” Le Bris added. “I was surprised early in the season to see this behaviour because they want to defend their box, their goalkeeper and their goal. They stick together all the time. Even when it's tough you can feel this energy. In this period it's more about mindset than tactics and technical qualities. For sure, it helps. The mindset is so important.

"We [have been] talking a lot about complacency, consistency, discipline, because young players before making mistakes can just be driven by the dynamic of the game, the score. Now the game is finished so I was really impressed again today. I was impressed by the level of maturity today. It was tough, it wasn't an easy game but they stayed connected and grounded in out principles. This was the main principle of our success today."

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