Alex Neil hails five-star Sunderland display after crushing Cambridge

Posted Sunday, April 24, 2022 by PA

Alex Neil felt Sunderland produced the best performance of his Stadium of Light reign as they thrashed 10-man Cambridge 5-1 to climb to fourth position in the League One table.

The Black Cats made the most of the 12th-minute dismissal of Cambridge defender Lloyd Jones as they claimed their biggest win under Neil.

Ross Stewart scored twice, with Elliot Embleton, Nathan Broadhead and Danny Batth also finding the net while Paul Digby replied for the visitors.

Sunderland need four points from their final two matches against Rotherham and Morecambe to guarantee themselves a place in the play-offs and Neil was delighted at the way in which they maintained their attacking momentum against Cambridge.

He said: “It was our best performance since I’ve been here. I know it’s against 10 men but how often do you see a game with 10 men get really difficult and sticky?

“I thought just from minute one we took the game away from them and controlled it.

“We moved the ball really well, we had a really clear approach in terms of how we wanted to approach the game and I thought the lads carried out it magnificently well.

“We could have had double figures and there were numerous excellent performances right across the pitch.

“What pleased me most was off the back of our half-time team talk, our professionalism in the second half.

“We talked about starving them of the ball, keep rotating it, and the chances will come. That’s exactly what we did.”

Cambridge boss Mark Bonner felt the decision to dismiss Jones for a foul on Stewart was extremely harsh and was proud of his players’ efforts despite their heavy defeat.

He said: “The result feels harsh on us because you never want to lose like that but with the dominance of Sunderland, they were going to run away with the game at certain times.

“In some respects, it could even have been a few more against us.

“The turning point is obviously the red card. Sunderland started the game well but we were trying to get some control of the game and an understanding of where we were.

“Then very soon after we’re one down, down to 10 men, and an incredibly difficult task becomes, you don’t want to say impossible, but almost impossible.

“It was certainly a challenging moment for us. It’s probably a foul but the sending off is for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity and the player that was fouled didn’t even have control of the ball at the time, so I don’t know it’s an obvious goalscoring opportunity if I’m honest.

“He (Stewart) does extremely well to get his body in front of Lloyd Jones and there is contact with him but it does feel very harsh that that’s a red card.”