A little nervy, somewhat disjointed at times and by no means a complete ninety-minute performance from Sunderland, but given the events of the past week, encompassing the fallout from the Ipswich loss and a lack of breakthroughs in the transfer market, this was the kind of victory that we were never going to turn our noses up at.
For everyone connected with the club, a marathon season awaits.
Points on the board and a genuine sense of momentum are vital, and after Wilson Isidor swept home his first goal of the campaign having failed to take an even more gilt-edged opportunity minutes earlier after being teed up by Granit Xhaka, he showed why the club were willing to extend his contract and why Régis Le Bris was determined to keep him on Wearside, to the point of being unusually forthright when asked about it two weeks prior.
A pressure game? High stakes? Maybe not, but don't underestimate the importance of the win, not least because the naysayers would've been queuing up to throw verbal barbs had we not delivered when it mattered.
The victory itself and the fact that we're now off and running for 2026/2027 felt far more satisfying than the display on which it was founded, as Sunderland weren't brilliant on Sunday — far from it, in fact.

#victory #xhaka