It was a comfortable victory for Sunderland as they kept a clean sheet and scored two against lowly Watford.
The away side seemingly more bothered about accruing cards than scoring goals, eventually being reduced to ten men. Sunderland’s goals coming from Niall Huggins (his first for the club) and Abdoullah Ba.
Sunderland hosted struggling side Watford for the first of two home games in a row at the Stadium of Light following a 3-0 away win against Sheffield Wednesday on Friday that saw us move up to fourth in the table. Watford meanwhile were just one place and one point above the bottom three after a 3-2 defeat to Middlesbrough at Vicarage Road on Saturday. The Hornets arguably needed the points more but Sunderland would also be looking over their shoulders as five other teams were now on 16 points as the race for play offs continued to tighten.
After a rather uneventful first 25 minutes Jeremy Ngakia was shown a yellow card for felling Jack Clarke as he stormed up the left wing. The resulting free kick coming to nothing as it was cleared after it was swung into the box.
Shortly after Jobe Bellingham had the first shot on target of the game as his chance was caught low on the right side by Daniel Bachmann.
A rather quiet first half was suddenly jolted to life with two minutes of normal time remaining. Dan Neil passed to Niall Huggins who beautifully charged forward before he unleashed the ball, the ball struck the cross bar before falling into the bottom left corner of the net to give Sunderland the lead.
Within the first five minutes of the second half Anthony Patterson dove to catch an effort from Imran Louza and Mason Burstow was booked for a challenge on Ryan Porteous. Another yellow was soon dished out when Tom Adele-Bashiru brought down Trai Hume.
Sunderland doubled their lead shortly after the hour mark. A corner was played around the box before the ball found Bellingham in the six yard area and his header found Abdoullah Ba. The Frenchman nodded home from just a few yards out.
It should have been three when Adil Aouchiche (who had just replaced Patrick Roberts) very nearly had his shot roll over the line but it was cleared.
With around 15 minutes remaining two Watford players, Bachman and Louza were shown yellow cards.
Yet another Watford player had their name in the book this time Ryan Porteous for bringing Clarke down on the edge of the box.
Watford’s issues with discipline got worse. Ryan Andrews was dismissed for a terrible foul on Clarke.
Ryan Healey almost halved the deficit, he managed to chip an effort wide with Patterson away from his net after a scuffle for a loose ball.
Six minutes were added but Sunderland saw the win out comfortably - nice to have a routine win at home!
FT: Sunderland 2-0 Watford
SUNDERLAND XI: Patterson, Hume, O’Nien (C), Ballard, Huggins, Roberts, Bellingham, Neil, Ba, Clarke, Burstow
Subs: Bishop, Seelt, Triantis, Bennette, Aouchiche, Rigg, Hemir, Rusyn, Taylor
WATFORD XI: Bachmann (C), Ngakia, Sierralta, Hoedt, Porteous, Lewis, Ince, Louza, Chakvetadze, Bayo, Dele-Bashiru
Subs: Hamer, Livermore, Rajović, Koné, Healey, Pollock, Asprilla, Kayembe, Andrews
