High five as Sunderland are the Top Cats
ROSS Stewart hit a hat-trick to sink Sheffield Wednesday and send Sunderland into the New Year as League One leaders.
The Scot completed his treble before the hour mark, with further goals from Callum Doyle and substitute Benji Kimpioka piling on the pain for the South Yorkshire side at the Stadium of Light.
Stewart started the ball rolling inside a quarter-of-an-hour and added his second 10 minutes before half-time, with Doyle giving the Wearsiders a 3-0 lead at the break.
Stewart then secured the match ball, before Kimpioka scored his first goal in more than two years to round things off 15 minutes from time and equal Sunderland’s biggest win of the season, which came against Cheltenham on Wearside at the end of September.
The win saw Sunderland leapfrog Rotherham to move two points clear at the top of the table, although the Millers have a game in hand of them while third-placed Wigan – who are four points behind the Black Cats – have three games in hand.
Lee Johnson named an unchanged side against Wednesday, sticking with the same starting XI that began Monday’s win at Doncaster Rovers
Wednesday had had 19 days without a game due to Covid postponements, and boss Darren Moore made two changes to the side that won at Crewe last time out.
In came Chey Dunkley and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, in place of Ciaran Brennan and Theo Corbeanu.
The early stages were scrappy, with a series of free-kicks breaking up play.
The visitors created the first real chance of the game when Jack Hunt’s cross found Lee Gregory, but his attempted backheel flick was saved by Thorben Hoffmann.
And Sunderland took the lead from their first real attack after only 12 minutes, with Leon Dajaku’s clever throughball releasing Stewart – who may have been fractionally offside, although the flag stayed down – and he raced through before slotting low past the advancing Bailey Peacock-Farrell from the edge of the box.
Peacock-Farrell then bailed Dunkley out when the defender’s loose backpass almost let Dajaku in, but the keeper got there first to clear his lines.
Hoffmann made a smart stop from on-loan Middlesbrough man Lewis Wing, with Gregory correctly flagged offside when he tried to follow-up.
Stewart got on the end of another ball in behind the Wednesday defence, but this time his shot was blocked behind for a corner.
Wednesday were forced into a change just before the half-hour when Dunkley limped off to be replaced by Brennan.
Hoffmann made a good stop from Hunt to preserve Sunderland’s lead, but on 36 minutes the Black Cats gave themselves a two-goal cushion.
Alex Pritchard seized on a stray pass and drove at the heart of the visitors’ suspect backline, before feeding the ball into the path of Stewart and he again beat the keeper with a low finish.
The third goal came on 40 minutes, with an Elliot Embleton corner from the left headed back across goal by Tom Flanagan and Doyle was there to nod in from close range.
Emb l e t o n was then denied by a brilliant save from PeacockFarrell, who tipped a shot that looked destined for the top corner over the bar.
And from the resulting corner, PeacockFarrell was in the right place at the right time on the line to punch Embleton’s setpiece away when it looked to be curling in.
Sunderland kept the pressure on in the second half, and Pea. cock-Farrell made a fine save to prevent Stewart heading home to complete his hat-trick five minutes after the restart.
But that only delayed Stewart’s big moment.
A minute before the hour, he was left completely unmarked inside the six yard area to head Bailey Wright’s cross past the helpless keeper. Sunderland were slicing through Wednesday’s shambolic defence at will, and were pressing for more goals. And 15 minutes from time, Kimpioka completed the rout just five minutes after coming off the bench. Dajaku’s low cross from the right found the striker at the far post and he had time to bring it under control before slipping his finish between Peacock-Farrell’s legs.
Sunderland could have added further goals in the closing stages, with Kimpioka coming closest when he forced Peacock- Farrell to make good save with his legs.