Alex Neil identifies key reason behind recent Sunderland success

Sunderland overcame struggling Gillingham 1-0 yesterday to put them up to sixth and into a play-off spot in the League One table.

They did leave it late however, not scoring their goal until the 95th minute through substitute Nathan Broadhead, who headed in Elliot Embleton’s cross for his ninth goal in 19 games since joining on loan from Everton in the summer.

Sunderland would’ve felt aggrieved to come away with the game without three points given their dominant performance and manager Alex Neil argues it is his side’s patience that got them the three points as he told The Chronicle: “I don’t think it was any more than we deserved really.

“I’ve looked at the stats – we had 80 percent of the possession, five shots at goal – and I thought the performance was very good.

“I know it took us until the 95th minute to score the goal, but you couldn’t be critical of how many times we got the ball in the final third areas – it was maybe the final ball, the final run, the final pass, that meant we didn’t create more.

“We had 25 shots on goal, five on target – that’s something we need to improve on – but at this stage of the season it is about getting the job done and winning the game.

“We were really dominant, penned them back in, and I’m not bothered who you are – it’s really difficult to break a team down when they put ten or 11 men behind the ball.

“I’ve watched them do it against Ipswich, against Sheffield Wednesday, they have been really hard to beat, but we produced that moment of quality when we needed it.”

Sunderland will look to further cement their place in the third-tier play-off spot on Saturday afternoon, when they travel to the Kassam Stadium to face another promotion hopeful in the form of Oxford United.

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