Maguire fires Sunderland into play-off places

Sunderland 1-0 Ipswich Town, Stadium of Light

Sunderland jumped above Ipswich into the League One play-off spots following Chris Maguire’s late strike.

The hosts created a plethora of chances before Maguire send the Stadium of Light into raptures in the 81st minute with a low-driven shot from the edge of the area.

The game was played in front of a bumper crowd of 32,726 on Wearside with the hosts looking for an immediate reaction after their disappointing 2-0 away loss to Portsmouth last weekend.

And it was the home side who had the ball in the back of the net first, as Charlie Wyke tapped the ball past Tomas Holy only to be ruled offside by the linesman.

The only other meaningful chance in the first-half came for Ipswich as James Norwood latched onto a long ball and tried to dink keeper Jon McLaughlin, but the Sunderland stopper managed to claw the ball away.

Lynden Gooch came close to scoring one of the goals of the season shortly into the second-half, after skipping past two Ipswich defenders before placing his shot onto the post for Wyke to then miss the follow up shot.

Max Power then nearly caught Holy out with an outside of the foot shot from a corner kick, but the keeper recovered well to tip the ball over the bar.

The Black Cats should have taken the lead 20 minutes from time, when Bailey Wright, unmarked in the centre of the box, smashed the ball against the bar from 10 yards out.

With time ebbing away, Maguire ensured that the hosts left with all three points after smashing new signing Kyle Lafferty’s lay off into the bottom left corner from just outside the box.