‘Back to basics’ was the way Alex Neil described his approach to getting a victory at the DW Stadium as Sunderland cruised to a win against a Wigan Athletic team that had only lost one game in the previous four months.
This was a significant win for a Sunderland side trying to get their promotion quest back on track after a shaky January and early February, where the dismissal of Lee Johnson and the interim period that followed before Neil’s appointment saw the team lose games against wholly inferior
opposition.
Truthfully, the early Bailey Wright header in front of 5,000 away fans from an Alex Pritchard free kick set the tone early doors, but it was all the more impressive that it was done, given the mini crisis his side was having in relation to central defenders available.
Arbenit Xhemajli made his long-awaited Sunderland league debut after more than a year of injury troubles, and was composed at the back alongside Wrigh,t ensuring that the hosts never really had a sniff in the game.
The best a stunned Wigan side could offer was an abundance of crosses that Anthony Patterson handled with ease throughout. Additionally, this was a big moment for Patterson who Neil drafted into the team unexpectedly and allowed him to prove himself as number one.
Eight minutes before half time, the game was over as a contest. Ross Stewart – who had been so threatening throughout – doubled our lead before the break from the penalty spot, after the f striker had been tripped just inside the box by Curtis Tilt.
Stewart sent a raucous away end balistic who could see that this day was going to be a big day in Alex Neil’s regime at Sunderland as they defeated a promotion rival.
The second half was a very unstressful match itself from a Sunderland perspective as Wigan gave very little to the game in terms of an attacking threat. In truth, the game became a bit of a sideshow to the saga of verbal abuse being thrown between James McClean and the away end, which was pretty embarrassing from both sides.
The hosts briefly threatened when Callum Lang raced clean through, only to fire straight at goalkeeper Anthony Patterson before Stewart added his second penalty of the game with four minutes remaining, after Tendayi Darikwa was penalised for handball.
After the game, Neil stressed the importance of delivering simple messages to his players and ensuring solidity was at the forefront of his team’s approach to the game.
“We competed, we won our headers, we picked up second balls,” Neil said. “We had moments of quality at the top end of the pitch. And if you do the basics really, really well, and you’ve got quality in your group, which we have, then that comes to the fore.”
This was a very significant game in the Alex Neil era, as it displayed the characteristics of how he wanted his side to play for the rest of the season. With attacking players such as Pritchard, Stewart, Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke, Sunderland had the players at their disposal to cause most teams trouble in League One.
After the 6-0 debacle at Bolton, the big test for the team was whether they could keep them out at the other end to make promotion a reality.
It was beginning to look a little more possible.
