CATS BACK ON TRACK
Neil urges his men on
By NEIL GOULDING at the DW Stadium
ALEX NEIL has urged his confident Sunderland side to reignite their promotion push after this ruthless victory.
Bailey Wright headed in Alex Pritchard’s whipped free-kick with the first move of the game to give the Black Cats lift-off.
And on-song striker Ross Stewart sent Ben Amos the wrong way from the spot before the break after being brought down by Curtis Tilt.
Stewart added a second penalty late on to complete a miserable afternoon for Wigan – and brought Neil
his first win in his fourth match in charge, arresting Sunderland’s recent fall from the promotion picture.
“Football is a simple game, we just complicate it sometimes by talking a lot of c**p,” said boss Neil (right).
“There have always been a lot of challenges from day one so it is really nice to come away from home against a good team, win 3-0, keep a clean sheet and more importantly send the fans home happy.
“Everything we spoke about the lads carried out to a tee, and we thoroughly deserved the win.
“I’m not naive to think we can play that way every week but today we got the game plan spot-on.
“If you do the basics well that allows the quality in our group to come to the fore.
“It gives us the platform to have a bit of belief and confidence for the remaining games.”
Roared on by a crowd of more than 20,000, the hosts enjoyed decent spells but saw James Mcclean spurn their best first-half opening against his former club as he dragged wide.
Callum Lang shot weakly after racing through on goal early in the second half and Tilt headed a free-kick wide, before Stewart punished the Latics from the spot again in the closing minutes after Tendayi
Darikwa was penalised for handball. Latics manager Leam Richardson said: “Fair play to Sunderland, they came for the win and got it.
“They are full of good players and have a really good manager in Alex.
“They have quality all over the pitch.
“It’s the first time we have lost at home since October which shows how well the lads have been doing.
“We lost to two penalties and a set-piece, and apart from that their chances came from our possession.
“It was a bit of a flat performance which is the biggest disappointment as this was our biggest crowd since the Premier League.”
Amos 5; Darikwa 5; Whatmough 5, Tilt 5; Mcclean 5; Power 5, Naylor 5 (Massey 88); Lang 6, Keane 5, Edwards 5 (Shinnie 69, 6; Magennis 5 (Humphrys 60, 6).
Jones, Watts, Bennett, Rea.
Patterson 6; Winchester 7, Wright 7, Xhamajli 7, Cirkin 7; Matete 6, Evans 7; Gooch 7, Pritchard 8 (Neil 82), Embleton 7 (Clarke 78); Stewart 9.
Hoffman, Dajaku, Defoe, Hume, Roberts
Ross Stewart – the Sunderland striker dazzled and got his reward with two well-taken penalties.
Sam Purkiss 5