Bantams relief for Collins
SUNDERLAND 2 CHARLTON 1 BLACK CATS CLAW LATE WIN THANKS TO GOOCH
LYNDEN GOOCH’S dramatic 96th-minute winner provided emphatic proof that a new dawn really is breaking on Wearside.
Boss Jack Ross hailed this late, late victory as the perfect result after Sunderland came from behind to take the points for only the second time in three seasons
Not since 2009 had they won on the opening day fuelling the belief that, despite their current status, the club is upwardly mobile again.
“I’m delighted,” said Ross. “There’s no better way to win a football match.
“After everything happening here in recent months, there was a lot of attention on us so it helps to build on that spirit of optimism which has been around the place.”
Despite wholesale changes after back-to-back relegations the Black Cats still got a crowd of 31,079 – the biggest since exiting the Premier League.
But after Lyle Taylor’s early goal for Charlton, fans must have feared the same old story until teenager Josh Maja equalised on 65 minutes with only his second career goal.
And the comeback was complete when US ace Gooch recovered from a bungled training ground move to race in behind the defence to meet Bryan Oviedo’s inviting cross with a bullet header.
Twenty years ago, Charlton beat Sunderland 7-6 on penal- ties after a 4-4 draw in one of Wembley’s best play-off finals.
So perhaps it was fitting the visitors took the lead from the spot in the first-ever third tier meeting between the sides.
Greenwich-born Taylor, who last month snubbed Sunderland for Charlton, opened the scoring on nine minutes.
He smashed home after Karlan Grant was sent sprawling by a needless lunge from Chris Maguire, one of five home debutants in a newlook side, which also included Bali Mumba, aged 16.
Charlton didn’t have then best preparation, having lost Kake ForsterCaskey for the season after he damaged cruciate ligaments in a training ground incident. Yet Lee Bowyer’s side shrugged off their problems to boss the first half-hour, with Darren Pratley and George Lapslie going close. Not too many footballers have followed a World Cup with a League One outing but that was Oviedo’s surreal timeline when he came on for the injured Donald Love. And the Costa Possession 63% 37% Shots On Target 6 5 Shots Off Target 2 2 Blocked Shots 3 2 Corners 6 6 Fouls Conceded 13 20 Offsides 0 2 Yellow Cards 2 3 Red Cards 0 0
Rican, whose last game was a 2-2 draw against Switzerland in Russia, had the hosts’ first effort on goal, testing Dillon Phillips in the 40th minute.
A tactical tweak and the introduction of Watford loanee Jerome Sinclair breathed fresh life into Sunderland.
Maja, isolated in attack, thrived alongside Sinclair and when he was allowed to turn inside the box before rifling a left-foot shot past Phillips, the Black Cats were purring.
Maguire’s 77th-minute freekick produced a fine save from Phillips but when Sinclair prodded wide at the near post nine minutes later, Charlton looked set to escape with a point until Gooch struck.
“That’s a cruel way to lose,” said Bowyer.