If only we had keeper last year!

What a glorious night Sunderland had at Fratton Park - but unless the players do the business at Wembley the two-leg victory over Portsmouth will be totally devalued and meaningless.

You don’t normally associate goalless draws with glory but when it gets you one step nearer the promotion that all of Wearside craves, then you most certainly can.

Jack Ross set his team up to frustrate Portsmouth and it worked a treat, it was a professional hit job on opponents that have been a thorn in our side lately so to come out on top felt good and to keep two clean sheets was impressive.

Jon McLaughlin has got to take so much credit for that, he is so reliable and unflappable. What a pity we didn’t have him last season as instead of fighting and scrapping to get back into the Championship we would never have dropped out of it in the first place with him as the last line of defence.

The key to it all last Thursday was the first 20 minutes. I thought Portsmouth would throw everything at Sunderland and they certainly tried but Sunderland’s organisation and game management was superb and Pompey rarely threatened. And on the few occasions they did breach the Sunderland defence, there was the big guy between the sticks who refused to concede.

It would have been nice if Sunderland had scored a goal of their own, that really would have killed the tie and certainly would have helped with the nerves.

Sunderland got the job done because they had a gameplan and stuck to it, they worked hard and never lost concentration.