ONE opportunity, one goal. Wilson Isidor can be more than satisfied with his afternoon's work at Hull's MKM Stadium.
Regis Le Bris is encouraging his Sunderland side to dominate possession and patiently pass their way through opposition defences, and for much of their game on Humberside, they tried to do exactly that. When it came to their match-winning goal, though, their approach could hardly have been more different.
The Black Cats returned to the top of the Championship table courtesy of the perfect counter-attacking goal, with Isidor picking the ball up in his own half, racing more than 50 yards while holding off Cody Drameh and delivering the perfect finish as he delicately chipped over goalkeeper Ivor Pandur.
The finish was reminiscent of Ross Stewart’s goal in the play-off semi-final win over Sheffield Wednesday, and after searching in vain for a clinical goalscorer ever since Stewart left for Southampton, Isidor’s performances in the last month or so suggest he could be the man to lead a promotion push. With three goals in the last four games, he already boasts a better record than anyone who has been tried since Stewart left.
His latest strike was a controversial one, with Hull’s players and staff feeling referee Robert Madley impeded Marvin Mehlem, enabling Sunderland to win possession and spark the decisive break. The Tigers came close when Chris Bedia struck the post, but didn’t really do enough to test the Black Cats defence, which was marshalled by the outstanding Chris Mepham.
Indeed, with Neil and Jobe Bellingham dominating the central area, and Chris Rigg pushing on to act as the main support to Isidor, it was Sunderland who were able to dictate the bulk of the game at the MKM Stadium, especially in the opening 45 minutes.
Translating their dominance into goalscoring opportunities was more of an issue, with Hull’s defenders happy to sit deep in order to deny them time and space in the final third.
Rigg’s link-up with Patrick Roberts on the right-hand side looked like being Sunderland’s best route to an opener for much of the afternoon, with the teenager’s youthful exuberance and supreme technical ability making him the game’s key creative threat.
He slipped a sublime tenth-minute nutmeg through the legs of a Hull defender to release Trai Hume into the area, but the full-back’s shot was blocked.
Pandur was called into action for the first time in the 17th minute, saving a low first-time effort from Isidor, and when Sunderland’s striker rolled the ball into the path of Dennis Cirkin six minutes later, the left-back fired in a shot that was deflected over.
Bellingham threatened on the stroke of half-time, firing a low shot just wide of the target, but for all their attractive build-up play before the break, the visitors will have been disappointed with their lack of any real threat.
Hull didn’t test Anthony Patterson at all in the first half, but if anything, it was the home side who looked the more threatening of the two teams on the rare occasions when they were able to break forward.
Abu Kamara was their main outlet down the left, and while the winger’s decision-making let him down on a number of occasions, he might well have profited from a two-on-one situation midway through the first half had a backtracking Bellingham not made a superb defensive interception.
Mepham was also called into action on a couple of occasions to shut down Hull counter-attacks before the interval, with Sunderland’s willingness to throw men forward occasionally threatening to count against them.
That said, however, Walter would have wanted his side to have more control of the game, and the Tigers improved noticeably in that respect in the early stages of the second half.
Suddenly, it was Sunderland’s players unable to get onto the ball, and after Mohamed Belloumi cut in from the left to flash an angled drive just wide of the post, the newly-energised hosts came within an inch or two of taking the lead.
Their striker, Bedia, had been a bystander for pretty much all of the first half, but he burst into life nine minutes into the second period, turning adroitly past Luke O’Nien before cannoning a fiercely-struck shot off the top of the left-hand post. A smidgen to the right, and Patterson was getting nowhere near the Ivorian’s strike.
Unlike in the first half, it was Hull committing numbers forward after the break, but their growing sense of adventure proved their undoing when Sunderland broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute.
The goal came from a Tigers corner, with Neil nicking the ball ahead of Mehlem. The midfielder released Isidor, who set off galloping towards the Hull goal from inside his own half.
The striker did superbly to hold off Drameh’s frantic defensive efforts, but he still had a lot to do as he entered the 18-yard box to be confronted by an advancing Pandur. It required a delicate finish, and Isidor provided it as he chipped a clinical strike over the Hull goalkeeper and into the net.
Hull’s management team were livid that the goal was allowed to stand, claiming that referee Madley had got in Mehlem’s way as he received the ball, enabling Neil to dispossess him. Their argument perhaps had a degree of merit, although, from a Sunderland perspective, it was impossible not to admire Isidor’s nerveless conversion of a difficult chance.
It was Isidor’s third goal from his four starts this season, and also represented one of his final involvements as he was substituted shortly after, making way for Aaron Connolly, who was handed a Sunderland debut against the team that released him at the start of the summer. Even without the injured Eliezer Mayenda, the Black Cats suddenly boast genuine attacking choice.
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