Sunderland U23s see off Wolves
Sunderland U23 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers U23, 6th November 13:00.
A brace from in-form Sunderland striker Mitch Curry sealed all three points in a 2-1 victory at the Academy of Light, despite a late penalty from Taylor Perry.
The three points secure a fourth win in the league for Elliot Dickman’s young side, who continue to make an impressive start to the season.
Wolves started the game brightly however they left space in behind for Mitch Curry to run onto Jake Hackett’s through ball in which he buried into the roof of the net leaving goalkeeper Andreas Sondergaard with little chance.
Perry threatened the Sunderland goal throughout the match, however he was unable to find the back of the net from open play as he blazed a chance created by former Rochdale man Luke Matheson over the crossbar.
Sunderland defended their box well and allowed Wolves to keep possession with Curry as a lone ranger up front, the Black Cats looked to expose the fragility of the Wolves defence as Curry latched onto another through ball in behind Wolves in which Sondergaard stood his ground, keeping Wolves in the game.
Anthony Patterson made a tremendous save from Perry’s free kick midway through the second half to keep his side in the lead as he plucked the ball out of the top corner.
Within minutes of the save Sunderland went down the other end and gave themselves a two goal cushion through Mitch Curry, more poor defending from Wolves allowed for Curry to break in behind and tuck the ball past Sondergaard with ease, as first team manger Phil Parkinson watched from the sidelines.
Eight minutes later Wolves were awarded a penalty for an alleged handball with twelve minutes of time remaining, Perry struck the ball into the middle of the net with the pen simply being too powerful for Patterson to save, despite getting a hand to it.
Sunderland sat deep for the remainder of the match and successfully held onto a hard-earned three points.