'The best' - Sunderland director and ex-player wax lyrical about Jack Clarke's 'prefect' goal against Reading

The Black Cats were 2-0 up at the time following Patrick Roberts’ first-half brace. Sunderland continued to control the game in the second half and scored an early contender for goal of the season.

It started with Patterson in goal, who knocked it to Luke O’Nien. The ball then came to Corry Evans in the middle, who laid it off to Lynden Gooch. The American passed the ball up the line to Dan Neil.

The midfielder quickly knocked it to Patrick Roberts, who beautifully helped the ball on its way to midfield maestro Alex Pritchard who sent Neil through down the right-hand side.

Neil bent a superb cross-come-pass to Jack Clarke in the box, who took a touch and finished superbly. All in all the goal took 18 seconds for Sunderland to score, with eight passes and eight different players involved.

Taking to Twitter after the goal, former Sunderland favourite Stephen Elliott said: “The weight of pass on every pass is just perfect. Composure on finish too. Without over hyping the goal I don’t think we will see much better in the Championship this season. Fantastic”

Sunderland’s non-executive director David Jones added: “This is what it’s all about. One of the best team goals I can remember.”

Sunderland currently sit sixth in the Championship and in the play-off spots following the 3-0 win against Reading. Tony Mowbray’s side will face Watford away this coming Saturday.