Sunderland AFC 0-1 Cardiff City
Sunderland AFC’s unbeaten run came to an end with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light.
Despite the Lads dominating for most of the game, Mark McGuinness’ late header ensured the Bluebirds returned to the Welsh capital with all three points in the Sky Bet Championship.
Tony Mowbray named an unchanged team from Wednesday’s win over Blackburn Rovers with Pierre Ekwah still absent due to a dead leg.
Nazariy Rusyn was named amongst the substitutes for the first time following the completion of his visa application process.
The first real opportunity of the game fell to the Black Cats as Dan Neil lifted the ball into the area for Jobe to head into the arms of Jak Alnwick after 15 minutes.
Just moments later, the Stadium of Light nearly erupted. Abdoullah Ba was threaded through by Jobe before cutting the ball back to Alex Pritchard whose effort was blocked on the line.
Five minutes from the break, it was almost déjà vu for Jack Clarke. A mazy run onto his right foot was well saved by Alnwick to deny the winger from the inside the area.
Moments after the restart, Sunderland continued to put the Bluebirds under pressure. Some good interplay between Clarke and Huggins ended in Pritchard striking a low effort which was parried away by Alnwick.
Tony Mowbray made a triple substitution with 30 minutes to play which nearly saw an instant impact. A ball into the area from Patrick Roberts very nearly deflected into the feet of Hemir, but Alnwick was quick off his line to collect.
With 20 minutes to play Trai Hume was margins away from grabbing his first goal of the season. Clarke wriggled past his man to get to the byline before teeing up Roberts to strike the legs of Alnwick before Hume's deflected effort flew narrowly past the post.
On 87 minutes, the Lads were made to pay for a number of missed chances when McGuinness headed home at the back post to hand Cardiff the points.
Next up for the Black Cats is a trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Friday evening.
Sunderland AFC: Patterson, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Huggins (Rusyn 90’), Neil, Pritchard, Jobe (Luis Hemir 61), Ba (Roberts 61), Clarke, Burstow (Aouchiche 61).
Subs not used: Bishop, Seelt, Triantis, Rigg, Taylor.