It is an understatement to say things haven’t been going well for us recently. We were second bottom of the League One form table coming into this fixture against high flying Wigan.
It seemed as if you could tell the result before it even happened. On paper, it seems so obvious what would happen. When the team was announced, comments flooded in about the selection on the ALS Twitter. But Alex Neil was vindicated, he pulled off a managerial masterclass.
This was the biggest game for Alex Neil so far as Sunderland manager and with Wigan doing so well, the odds were against us getting a result.
It’s depressing to write this, but out of those 5000 travelling fans a good percentage would have been happy with a point. We didn’t want to see a repeat of the Bolton result, which happened just down the road from here and was the symbolic marker of the wheels falling off for us. In my mind, I just thought ‘as long as it’s not as bad as Bolton’, which is, admittedly, a horrible mindset to be reduced to but such is our poor form.
The game got off to the best possible start. Pritchard won a free kick on the edge of the box and floated a beautiful ball into the box which Wright got on the end of. 1-0 Sunderland…
An almost identical free kick opportunity presented itself to Wigan soon after, then another free kick edge of the box for Wigan followed. They made nothing of them. Matete was shown a yellow card though it looked like he got kicked in the face.
Wigan come dangerously close to scoring, in fact the supporters closest to the away end thought they had, much to our chagrin.
The referee was giving things the wrong way and the game was scrappy at times, but for the first time in a while, we were actually playing some good stuff and managing the game really well.
We got another chance when a clever bit of movement in the box by Ross Stewart drew a foul from a Wigan defender and we were awarded a penalty. After a delay due to Max Power being a prat moving the ball about and just generally getting in our players faces, Ross Stewart sent Amos the wrong way and we went two goals to the good. The celebrations were marred a bit by one of our fans throwing a flare which hit Pritchard and then Winchester and there was a delay getting restarted.
This was the best half of football we have played for a long time. We set up perfectly to manage Wigan, matched them physically and Pritchard was exceptional, really running the show. Couldn’t ask for more. Relief. Wigan are a horrible side. Really horrible.
Not resting on our laurels, we attacked early into the second half and after a Pritchard free kick, the ball came to Ross Stewart who flashed a shot across goal that went narrowly wide, no one able to steer it in.
It was all us for the opening five minutes. We could easily have been four up when Pritchard put a shot wide where he should have really hit the target. A mistake from our centre halves meant that an onrushing Lang was able to have a clear shot at goal which Patterson saved comfortably. This was Wigan’s clearest chance.
McClean whipped a good cross in with 15 minutes to go but the Wigan player headed wide. The game was essentially won and we ran the clock down and saw the game out, coming close with a free kick towards the very end of the match.
Then, confusingly (for me at least, I didn’t quite catch why) we were awarded a second penalty. Up stepped across Stewart to convert.
This feels like it could be a turning point in our season and we return home with many positives. This looked a side transformed from earlier in the week. It was one of those games where MOTM could go to a number of players. It was an incredibly assured team performance.
Final Score: 3-0
ALS Man of the Match: Alex Pritchard
