Elliott Dickman reserved praise for stopper Max Stryjek as Sunderland under-23s marched their way into the Premier League International Cup semi-finals on Wednesday evening.
Ethan Robson broke the deadlock on 25 minutes before Elliot Embleton doubled the Lads’ lead minutes into the second period.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the Black Cats as Stryjek made a string of fine saves, firstly to deny Iker Hernandez twice and then Peru Nolaskoain on the stroke of half-time with a splendid one-handed stop.
Ingo Córdoba was later shown a straight red in the second period as Athletic Club were reduced to 10, and from there the Black Cats oozed confidence as they secured their place in the last four of the European competition.
Speaking post-match, Dickman lavished praise on his team’s performance, paying particular homage to Polish youngster Stryjek for his match-winning contributions.
“I’m really pleased because I thought it was a really good team performance,” he said.
“It was something especially after the Man City game we wanted to put right and I thought tonight the team did really, really well.
“After the first 10-15 minutes we settled down and played some nice football and in the second period we were terrific.
“It was a massive, massive save (on the stroke of half-time),” he continued.
“I’m a really big fan of Max (Stryjek) and I think he has a really big future in the game at whatever level.
“Tonight he has done great, he has kept a clean sheet and that save on half-time was very, very good.”
