This is how it played out as Sunderland end their poor form with outstanding Norwich City win
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Abdoullah Ba’s early goal gave the Black Cats a lead to defend and they did that with relish, limiting Norwich City to only a handful of half chances despite gifting up the vast majority of the ball through the second half.
It was a superb physical and mental effort from a squad down the bare bones, and now back within striking distance of the top six.
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Hide AdIt had looked a tall order for Sunderland coming into the game, their already lengthy injury list extended even further when Amad and Alex Pritchard were ruled out with minor injuries.
An inexperienced side accepted from the early stages that they would not have a great amount of possession, but to their credit they pressed aggressively and created real openings. Gelhardt had two early efforts in an open game, with Pukki and Aarons going close at the other end.
Sunderland took the lead with an excellent effort, Roberts teeing up Gelhardt who found Ba with an early pass. From there it was all about the midfielder’s quality, shifting the ball onto his left foot and arrowing a superb low drive into the far corner. The youngster was pushing up close to Gelhardt whenever possible and bringing the Leeds United loanee to life. he had a glorious opportunity when Neil sprung him clear in the box, but he could only fire his effort straight at Gunn. It was a huge chance, and another one went begging shortly afterwards when Batth struggled to connect with a free header.
Sunderland were dominant and the home fans restless, but the game then began to settle into a more expected pattern as Wagner’s side controlled possession – albeit without any major chances before the break.
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Hide AdNorwich continued to control possession after the interval but is was the visitors who were creating the better chances, Roberts proving an outstanding outlet on the break. Twice Clarke was denied well, first by a good covering challenge and then latterly by a strong Gunn stop.
A raft of yellow cards, albeit some of them harsh in the extreme, underlined the tiring legs in the Sunderland side as the half developed. The lack of depth in the squad was always going to cause them problems during this phase of the game and Norwich looked far the stronger, though entering the final ten minutes they had still yet to really test Patterson.
The home support were understandably left incensed when Sara appeared to play Sargent through on goal at the start of six minutes stoppage time, only for the referee to pull the play back for a foul by Ekwah. It was a bad error but in truth Norwich had offered nowhere near enough with the ball they had, and the Black Cats fully deserved the points. it was backs to the wall at times, but it was also a vindication for Mowbray’s selection and counter-attacking strategy that worked to a tee.
Three hugely challenging fixtures await but Sunderland are back up and running.