Professional display sees Cats through

GOALS from Nathan Broadhead and Luke O’nien saw Sunderland cruise to victory against Wigan Athletic and book their place in the Carabao Cup fourth round draw.

Sunderland dominated the first half-hour at the DW Stadium with Aiden O’brien going close, before they took the lead on 26 minutes when Alex Pritchard put Broadhead through on goal and he showed a cool head to score his first goal for the club.

Dennis Cirkin went close a couple of minutes later, forcing a good save out of Ben Amos.

And debutant Leon Dajaku should have capitalised on a mistake by the Wigan defence shortly before half-time which put him through on goal, but he did not get a shot away, and by the time he tried to square the ball to Pritchard the Latics defence managed to crowd the midfielder out and Sunderland’s appeals for a penalty for a trip on Pritchard fell on deaf ears.

Wigan’s best chance of the half – and of the match – was a long-range shot from Gavin Massey which posed no problems for Lee Burge.

Sunderland came out fired up for the second half and they extended their lead ten minutes after the restart through O’nien.

But ten minutes from time Sunderland suffered an injury blow when Niall Huggins limped off. But the Black Cats saw the game out comfortably to take their place in the fourth round draw.

GOALS

0-1 Broadhead 26mins

Pritchard played the ball into the left-hand channel, O’brien realised he is offside and leaves it to Broadhead who raced into the box, steps inside the defender and scores with a low shot into the bottom far corner.

0-2 O’nien 54mins

Huggins got forward down the right, his low cross found O’nien on the move inside the box and he sidefoots home.

Broadhead’s goal, the on-loan Everton man’s first for Sunderland, in a performance that showed he is growing in confidence.

Pritchard was superb on the night, pulling the strings in the number ten position and providing the assist for Broadhead’s opener.

This was a thoroughly professional performance from Sunderland and they fully deserved to progress to the fourth round of the competition.

Both sides made changes, but the fact that Sunderland won this game so comfortably showed their superior squad strength.

Alex Pritchard was outstanding in the number ten role and Niall Huggins also impressed before he suffered an injury late in the game and had to go off.

This was the perfect response to the disappointment of letting a 2-0 lead slip at Fleetwood at the weekend, and Sunderland can now look ahead to Saturday’s home game against Bolton.

Nathan Broadhead celebrates after scoring Sunderland’s first goal during the Carabao Cup Third Round match against Wigan Athletic. Right, Luke battles for possession with Gavin Massey