Sunderland manager Alex Neil says his side are slightly ‘disappointed’ they will only take a 1-0 lead to Hillsborough on Monday. The Black Cats defeated Sheffield Wednesday in the first leg of the League One play-off semi-finals thanks to Ross Stewart’s goal on the stroke of half time.
Stewart pounced on an error by Wednesday defender Sam Hutchinson to put the home side in front, as the 32-year-old failed to deal with a long ball over the top. But in truth, Wednesday never really got going on Wearside until a late flurry in the final stages, where Liam Palmer looked the biggest goal threat.
Sunderland had several chances to add to their advantage heading into the second leg, with Alex Pritchard hitting the bar, Dennis Cirkin heading over unmarked and Stewart dragging a shot just wide. Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Neil was proud of the way his side played, but thinks a bigger margin of victory would’ve been a fairer reflection of the match.
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He said: “What I do know is we’ve given ourselves an advantage at home which we would like going into the second leg. I think the only disappointing thing is from our point of view is it should have been more.
“I thought we had a spell in the second half, probably from about half time until about 70 to 75 minutes, where we were totally dominant. We had probably three really good chances and even at the end we had a really good one too.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t add to the scoreline but it was a really good performance from us.”
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