I watched Sunderland’s controversial win over Hull City and here are four conclusions I drew
Wilson Isidor’s brilliant goal in the second half proved to be the difference
Sunderland returned to the top of the Championship with a 1-0 win over Hull City on Sunday afternoon.
Phil Smith was reporting on the game and here are his key Sunderland conclusions…
SUNDERLAND REGAIN CONTROL
Nobody could or would pretend that this was a dominant or perfect performance from Sunderland.
They edged the first half in terms of possession but Hull City were a threat on the break, their willingness to sit deep and burst forward slightly catching the visitors off guard. Hull then dominated the opening exchanges of the second half, striker Chris Bedia crashing an effort off the post shortly before Wilson Isidor surged clear from a corner to score the winner. Hull, not unreasonably, felt luck was also on Sunderland’s side not just because of the referee’s positioning for that goal but also because of his decision not to penalise Chris Mepham for a handball just before the interval. On another day, perhaps the result might have gone another way.
What was impressive from a Sunderland perspective, though, was how few opportunities they limited Hull to throughout the contest and particularly after their goal. There was still half an hour to play at the point Isidor audaciously dinked his effort over Ivor Pandur and yet Anthony Patterson did not have another save to make. Hull registered just two shots from inside the Sunderland box from that point until the final whistle, both headers from corners that flew well over the bar. Across the entire 90 minutes, Hull registered an expected-goals tally of just 0.49.
