Alex Neil hails ‘deserved’ win as Sunderland score late winner over Gillingham

Posted Sunday, April 03, 2022 by PA

Sunderland manager Alex Neil believes his side deserved to win after a last-minute goal from Nathan Broadhead saw them edge Gillingham 1-0.

The Black Cats had plenty of chances throughout the game but it was Broadhead’s stoppage-time header that rescued three points.

“I don’t think it’s any more than we deserved really.” Neil said.

“I thought the performance was very good. I know it took us until the 95th minute to score the goal but you couldn’t be critical at the fact of how many times we got the ball in those final-third areas, how many opportunities we did create.

“We deserved to win, there’s no questions about that for me.

“I think (Gillingham boss) Neil Harris would be pleased with his players in how they stuck at it, they were hard to beat and credit to them, but I think we deserved to win the game.”

The last-gasp goal sent Sunderland back into the League One play-off places but Neil stressed his players can not afford to relax with six games remaining.

He said: “There’s a long way to go, we’ve got a lot of big games coming up. But, as you can probably tell, I don’t get too high too much about things that happen, I don’t get too low too much about things that happen because once it’s done it’s done.

“I need to plan for the next bit and that’s what I’m going to do just now.”

Gillingham manager Neil Harris admitted conceding in the last minute was a big blow for his side.

He said: “It was a bit of a kick in the nuts. I thought Sunderland were excellent, at spells in the game they made it really difficult for us to get out of our half.

“They showed their quality that they possess as a football club, why they’re playing at this level there should be a lot of questions asked.

“But you look at the front four players they started with, tens of millions of pounds they’ve moved for in their careers and caused us all sorts of problems early on, but we managed to deal with it, managed to adjust.

“I thought at times we looked really comfortable, we didn’t always give a threat ourselves because it’s tough.

“I knew it was going to be a difficult game today. I knew it was probably going to be our hardest challenge between now and the end of the season.

“Obviously it’s tough to take when you concede last minute and it’s an avoidable goal for me, but sometimes you have to say fair play to the opponent because I thought in spells they played very well today.”