Former Sunderland boss Alex Neil had the last laugh against his old club once again as his out-of-form Stoke City side beat the Black Cats at the bet365 Stadium. Neil, who left Sunderland in August last year to take over at Stoke, returned to the Stadium of Light in March and oversaw a 5-1 win. This win is huge for both Neil and his side as before yesterday's game they had only won one in eight. This win steers them 5 points clear of the relegation zone. Stoke saw some key players back in the team today as they returned from injury with Ryan Mmaee and Enda Stevens being the stand out players.
Straight from the kick off the match was electric in tempo and nerve racking for both sets of supporters. Ryan Mmaee found holes in the Sunderland defence early on into the game as Daniel Johnson tried slipping him through on goal, however, his pass was over hit. Ryan Mmaee continued to cause Sunderland problems as the Moroccan striker took the ball on his chest and slotted It into the bottom right corner past Patterson For one nil as the Stoke fans went mental. The celebrations were then cut short as Sunderland quickly equalised at the other end of the pitch courtesy of former Stoke City winger Jack Clarke. Sunderland then began to get their mojo back as they also had a big chance to take the lead in the 13th minute as defender Dan Ballard headed the ball over the crossbar from an in swinging cross. Midway through the first half, Stoke fans started to realise that the referee had been making poor decisions and they then became restless. Stoke did have a small glimpse of regaining their lead before half time, as midfielder Wouter Burger hit a 1/2 volley aimed for the top right corner but the Dutchman's effort was saved well by the Black Cats keeper Patterson. The score remained equal at the half time whistle with it all to play for in the second period.
Stoke came out the blocks quickly in the second-half as an in swinging corner, Delivered by Daniel Johnson, was met by the head of defender Luke McNally who powered the ball past Patterson to make it 2/1 to the Potters. This marked the Irishman's first goal for his new team. Sunderland went in search of a second equaliser and forced home keeper Mark Travers into a series of saves, but Dan Ballard came closest when he headed against the post 20 minutes from time. Sunderland also had a penalty appeal in the 51st minute, as winger Jack Clarke went down in the box, however, the appeal was waved off by the referee, much to the frustration of the travelling supporters. The full time whistle blew as the bet365 stadium erupts into euphoria, this three points will give Stoke confidence to build on this performance going into the game against Leeds in midweek.
Manager Comments:
Q: Is this the start of your teams revival?
AN: “Yeah. We’ve got Leeds on Wednesday so they don't get any easier. We'll see how our lads come back in terms of who's going to be available or not. We’ve got to bear in mind that for lads, particularly when they’ve come from a different league like Ryan and Andre, is that when you play that type of game and put in as much as you do, can you go away on Wednesday? Can you go again on Saturday? That’s the biggest challenge in the Championship for all these lads that we've got so we'll take a view over the next couple of days. We'll see how they feel.”
Q: A good header from McNally for the winner. Johnson's delivery wasn't always great this afternoon but that one set up the goal?
AN: “That’s an understatement! I think that was his first good corner and the ball ends up in the back of the net. So, yeah, his delivery wasn't great but the one that mattered ends up in the net. What we know Sunderland, obviously having been there, is that they have got a lot of small technical players and they're very good – very, very good – but naturally they don't have massive size across the pitch, hence the reason they go zonal. If we can isolate somebody at the back post, which we did with Luke, then we can capitalise.”
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