Sunderland earned a narrow advantage in their Championship play-off semi-final with a 2-1 victory at Coventry in the first leg.
Goals were quickly shared midway through the second half as Wilson Isidor fired Sunderland ahead, before Jack Rudoni levelled for Coventry.
With two minutes of the 90 to go Sunderland bagged the winner, as Milan van Ewijk’s error allowed Eliezer Mayenda in to finish.
Two minutes of chaos midway through second half
The game sprung into life on 68 minutes. A quick counter-attack from Sunderland saw Enzo Le Fee spring the ball in behind for Isidor, who showed no signs of the rust that had seen him fail to score since February, as he lashed it past Ben Wilson.
Just 110 seconds later, Coventry were level. No surprise who the goalscorer was either, as the in-form Rudoni rose in the middle to bullet home a header from Milan van Ewijk’s cross.
Then the gift, and perhaps the crucial moment in this tie
Just as it looked like the game was meandering towards a draw, a gift for Sunderland and a disaster for Coventry.
Van Ewijk, so influential in the equaliser, turned and played a helplessly short backpass towards his own goal.
Mayenda, who had run and run all night, ran once more. He still had plenty of work to do following the interception, but he showed all his composure in beating Collins and rolling it into an empty net.
The away fans were jubilant. Van Ewijk looked forlorn.
Sunderland dismiss fears of poor form
There had been plenty of fear from a Sunderland perspective heading into the tie that their poor form heading into the play-offs could cost them.
The Black Cats had been largely treading water in the Championship since February, unable to really finish anywhere but fourth. Their final five games of the regular season had all ended in defeat.
But it was a tactically astute performance from the away side at the CBS Arena.
Sunderland’s Luke O’Nien on Sky Sports Football:
“I’m really proud of the lads for that performance. We’ve talked about it all week what we wanted to do and to do that is superb.
“Crazily, we still very much believed. People might not think that from the outside, but you can tell a lot from a team when you don’t win a lot of games and the belief in the changing room stayed, the relationships between the boys stayed and I’m dead proud of the team. We’ve put ourselves in good stead for Tuesday.
“We need to carry on what we’ve been doing all season. Nothing needs to change in the second leg. We need to focus on us, the things that we do. We need to double down on it and that will give us the best chance on Tuesday.”
Le Bris: We showed discipline and willingness
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris on Sky Sports Football:
“We showed the discipline you need and the willingness to play together. We expected more or less the gameplan of Coventry because they have good players and good control of the ball.
“We did so well to secure fourth. Players are players, and we showed today that we were switched on [after so long with nothing to play for].
“We were fresh, we were connected. We knew it would be tough, and it’s still halfway through the tie.
“We need to recover, then we’ll play with the same mindset. We know anything can happen in football and we need the willingness and commitment to win the second leg. If we stick to our plan, we’ll have our fans with us and the atmosphere. We’ll try our best.”
Phillips praises composed Le Bris | But Sunderland ‘still have a job to do’
Sunderland legend Kevin Phillips on Sky Sports Football:
“He [Le Bris] is a very composed person, he doesn’t get too animated. You could see, when the final whistle went, the players were trying to calm the players down. You saw what happened last night with Chris Wilder and Sheffield United.
“They’ve done half the job, they are in the driving seat. They will go into that game on Tuesday as favourites. It’s going to be an electric atmosphere up there at the Stadium of Light, which will help them immensely.
“But they still have a job to do. They can’t take their foot off the gas and now it’s about recovery and getting ready to go again.
“I thought their gameplan, the discipline, every person’s work-rate, their organisation, everything you need to come to a place like this to get a result, especially in the play-offs, was there.
“They’ve come in for a lot of criticism, rightly so, losing five games coming into these play-offs, but that shows the sign of a good side, to be able to put that to one side and get a result, so credit to them.”
Lampard defends Van Ewijk | It didn’t go for us tonight
Coventry boss Frank Lampard on Sky Sports Football:
“We don’t have to talk about that now. He’s been brilliant for us.
“It was a good performance from the team. We pushed and pushed, and dominated possession of the ball. We are unfortuante to be one behind going into the second leg.
“If you’ve got eight bodies in the box and you’re crossing it, it’s hard. We defended well and on another day things go for you over the course of 90 minutes. They didn’t quite go for us tonight.”
