Ross Stewart gives Sunderland a narrow lead against Sheffield Wednesday in their play off semi-final first leg

The black cats edged out the owls 1-0, but it’s still all to play for when the sides meet again at Hillsborough on Monday night.

A play off semi final record attendance of 44,742 were in the Stadium of Light on Friday night and fan displays welcomed the two teams to the pitch under a huge amount of noise made by both sets of fans.

The game kicked off and it was Sunderland on the front foot spurred on by the fans. The first chance came at the 11th minute when an excellent corner from Alex Pritchard missed everyone on the way through without nobody getting the vital touch.

After a period of dominance from Sunderland, Wednesday’s first chance came through top scorer Lee Gregory who’s 25th minute cross come shot header found the arms of Sunderland keeper Anthony Patterson.

The rest of the second half nobody could put a stamp on the game. Until a 45th minute Wednesday corner was cleared by Dennis Cirkin past the half way line what was chased down by Ross Stewart who nicked in front of Sam Hutchinson and was clear on goal and despite his first effort being saved by Bailey Peacock Farrell, Stewart followed it in and put it in to the empty net.

Sunderland came out for the second half the way they ended the first with Pritchard striking the bar from a long range effort. Winger Patrick Roberts started to get into his stride going on a number of mazy runs nearly resulting in goals.

Sunderland continued to dominate up until the 70th minute when a swing of momentum resulted in Wednesday growing into the game but they could not create any worthwhile chances to draw level. The last big chance of the game actually fell to Sunderland in 89th minute a wayward header by Peacock Farrell fell to Stewart but his low effort drove past the left hand side post.

The win means Sunderland will take a 1 goal advantage to Hillsborough on Monday with the winner advancing to the final on the 21st of May at Wembley.