Ten man Sunderland came from behind to beat Birmingham City 2-1 at the SOL to keep the play-off dream alive.
The visitors took the lead in the first half through George Hall before Trai Hume equalised on the stroke of half time. Amad Diallo sealed the points with a spectacular goal in the second half before Dennis Cirkin was sent off but the lads held on for the victory, a result which lifts us to 9th (one point away from the play-off places).
There were no fresh injury concerns for Tony Mowbray although Luke O'Nien was available after missing the game at Cardiff on Monday due to his lass being heavily pregnant. Former Sunderland loanee Dion Sanderson is on the books at Birmingham but was due to miss out on a return to Wearside through injury as was talisman Troy Deeney.
As expected following the busy Easter period Tony Mowbray made two changes to the side that started the win over Cardiff with Edouard Michut and Patrick Roberts replacing Pierre Ekwah and Abdoullah Ba.
The lads had the first effort on goal after two minutes when Roberts cut inside from the right but the keeper easily gathered it. Two minutes later the lads should have opened the scoring when Roberts played Gooch in down the right. The American crossed towards Pritchard on the edge of the six yard box but his shot was deflected wide for a corner which came to nothing.
After ten minutes Birmingham had there first effort on goal from a corner but the header was glanced wide. Dennis Cirkin was booked after 15 minutes for a foul on the half way line before Patterson was forced into a good save from shot by Colin. Birmingham were growing into the game and a few minutes later a long throw from the visitors was then nodded wide of Patterson’s post.
Birmingham took the lead on the half hour when George Hall slotted the ball past Patterson unmarked. Alex Pritchard was guilty of giving the ball away on the half way line with a sloppy pass allowing the visitors to break down the right. Chong surged into the box after escaping a challenge from Cirkin and found Hall who couldn’t miss from the six yard box.
Sunderland were nearly caught out again five minutes before the break when Michut lost the ball but Patterson did well to hold Jutkiewicz’s left footed shot. The lads forced a flurry of corners towards the end of the half the best effort being Dan Neil’s volley before we levelled the scores. Pritchard’s corner was swung into the box and headed back across goal by Roberts before Hume nodded the ball in from close range.
Neither manager made a change at the break but Birmingham had a chance early in the second half when Chong crossed from the right for Bellingham but Patterson was equal to his effort. With half an hour left to play the gaffer made a double change with the game drifting as Gooch and Michut replaced by Gelhardt and O’Nien.
The game then spring into life and and the changes almost paid off immediately as Gelhardt played a clever ball behind the Birmingham defence for Roberts but he blazed his shot over the bar.
A minute later Danny Baath made a rare mistake allowing Jutkiewicz a sight of goal but Patterson palmed his effort away before the lads cleared the danger. Two minutes later Sunderland went close when Pritchard crossed to the back post for Clarke but his header was held by the keeper.
With 15 minutes left Sunderland took the lead with a spectacular goal out of nothing from Amad Diallo. The Ivorian picked the ball up from Jack Clarke and rode a couple of challenges before unleashing an unstoppable shot past the keeper into the bottom right hand corner.
The lads were reduced to ten men soon after when Dennis Cirkin was given his marching orders after picking up a second yellow card. He was adjudged to have blocked off Chong and was sent off despite taking a whack himself to the face on the halfway line. Mowbray reacted to the dismissal by replacing Patrick Roberts with Joe Anderson.
Sunderland were happy to sit in and try and counter the visitors due to having a man less and to be fair it worked. The lads defended well before a paltry three minutes added on time was signalled by the officials not that we were complaining.
We made a change at the death with Ekwah replacing Diallo before the ref blew for full time.
Final Score – Sunderland 2 Birmingham City 1
ALS Man of the Match - Amad Diallo
