Martin O’Neill was a happy man on Saturday evening as his side went from ‘winless’ to ‘unbeaten’ in the space of 90 minutes.
A goal from Steven Fletcher – his fifth in as many games – after 51 minutes was enough to secure the win for the Black Cats over Wigan Athletic.
After four successive draws, this victory was Sunderland’s first of the new campaign in the league and a result which pushes them up the league and into 13th place.
The Black Cats’ cause was helped by a straight red card for Latics midfielder Jordi Gomez, for what looked like an innocuous enough challenge.
Speaking afterwords to BBC Sport, O’Neill was delighted to record a maiden league victory of the season:
‘We have the win and we are unbeaten so far this season. Steven Fletcher was fantastic, not just scoring the goal but his overall centre-forward play. He was terrific, he is a really fine player,’ admitted O’Neill.
‘I am not concerned that our goals are only coming from him at the moment.’
‘I think in time that if he is the one who continues to score for us and no-one else does then that might become a problem,’ continued O’Neill.
‘A lot of others are doing good things for us in this run and it will come in time.’
Sunderland head to league champions Manchester City this weekend in what will undoubtedly be the toughest test of their season so far.
Share this article
Related Articles
