Sunderland 1 AFC Wimbledon 0

SkyBet Football League One, Saturday 2nd February 2019

Aiden McGeady struck midway through the second half to give Sunderland a precious three points after his goal was enough to defeat AFC Wimbledon in SkyBet League One at The Stadium Of Light.

This was the latest annual pilgrimage to the North-East for my step-mum and myself in honour of my late father who had been a Black Cat for over forty years until his death in 2008 through cancer, so we were hoping for better than last year when the hosts fell to a rather terrible 2-0 loss to Brentford in what was an awful season for the club.

Because of a rather forgetful two seasons, Sunderland saw themselves now in the third-tier of English football, but they had at least made changes and were now fighting at the right end of the table this term.

But the last few weeks had seen them drop points in the league and fallen to fifth in the standings, albeit with two/three games in hand on those above, so they could with wins improve this dramatically.

This was also their first home game in the league for three weeks, so a buoyant 30,000 plus crowd were again in attendance at the SOL, an incredible turnout for League One fair, and the visitors were AFC Wimbledon, who sat bottom of the table and several points from safety.

Now you would expect the hosts to claim an easy three points against the bottom side, but the visitors came into this one off the back of their famous 4-2 home win over West Ham United in the FA Cup last weekend, so the Black Cats knew this one would not be easy at all.

And the Wombles started brightly and saw hosts keeper McLaughlin almost caught out by a audacious lob from the visitors own half after they had lost possession, and then moments later Nightingale somehow fired over from six yards out.

The hosts also created an opening of their own down the other end when Lewis Morgan shifted the ball onto his left foot before firing wide from eighteen yards, but the returning Grant Leadbitter had fitted straight into the hosts midfield and looked at home instantly in what is his boyhood club.

Sunderland then saw Leadbitter send a long-range effort over after Max Power and Charlie Wyke had both failed to take a chance, and although Lewis Morgan looked a danger down right, as the half approached its conclusion there was an air of frustration inside the stadium as the hosts had failed to really turn their possession into clear-cut chances.

Half Time Sunderland 0 AFC Wimbledon 0

Whatever was said to the hosts at half-time seemed to do the trick as Sunderland saw a real sustained period of pressure put on the visitors, but it continued to be a frustrating afternoon initially as what looked like a handball was turned down, whilst manager Ross decided to take off the rather unpopular Wyke and replace him with the exciting Kazaiah Sterling.

You started to feel like it was going to be one of those days, with the visiting side putting ten players behind the ball and saying ‘come on what have yer got’ and the hosts were finding it difficult to break through.

It was going to take something special we thought, and midway though the second period we got that ‘special’ moment when McGeady received a long diagonal pass from Leadbitter, drove at the full-back on the right-hand side of the box, and then curled a wonderful effort across goal and into the far corner to send the home fans wild.  You could sense the relief inside the stadium.

You really wanted the home side to go on and grab a second, but this is Sunderland so it’s never always that straightforward!!!  The visitors did have one major chance before the game was out though, and saw Scott Wagstaff, scorer of two goals in last weekend’s FA Cup giant-killing, get into the box before his effort was well saved, although it looked like his ankles had been clipped, so he was asking for a penalty.

Thankfully for us it wasn’t given, but it was a very nervy moment, as were the final ten minutes and then the SIX minutes of stoppage time, yes SIX, that was shown to the gasps of SIX in the home crowd.  It was so tense.

But the home side saw out those six minutes fairly comfortably and took a massive three points and made our day a brilliant one!!!  Sunderland are now up to fourth, with games in hand, and with three home games coming up in a space of seven days, they need wins to get themselves right back in the title and promotion hunt once again.

For The Dons it’s looking desperate down at the foot of the table, although they do have a Last 16 FA Cup clash at home to Millwall to look forward to, so I wish them well for that at least.

Full Time Sunderland 1 AFC Wimbledon 0