Sky Sports pundit makes ‘demons’ Sunderland claim after play-off victory against Coventry City

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Sunderland battled to a hard-fought 2-1 win against Coventry City at the CBS Arena in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final.

Sheffield United got the play-offs underway in style against Bristol City last night but Wilson Isidor and Jack Rudoni cancelled out the teams for much of Friday’s offering. That was before Eliezer Mayenda took advantage of Milan van Ewijk’s mistake to make it 2-1 ahead of the return leg at the Stadium of Light.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	46	29	13	4	95	30	65	100
2	BurnleyBurnley	46	28	16	2	69	16	53	100
3	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	46	28	8	10	63	36	27	90
4	SunderlandSunderland	46	21	13	12	58	44	14	76
5	CoventryCoventry	46	20	9	17	64	58	6	69
6	Bristol CityBristol City	46	17	17	12	59	55	4	68

Fourth met fifth and Frank Lampard called for calm and to not look too far ahead of themselves ahead of kick-off but the Coventry boss is looking to end their recent Wembley woes and put defeat on penalties in the last two seasons behind them by going all the way at the third attempt.

It’s an uphill battle from here for Cov, but Sunderland will be delighted to put a troubling end of the regular season behind them and take a lead back to Wearside. Regis Le Bris’ men had to dig deep for their win.

• READ MORE: Jack Rudoni highlights the ‘dream’ of playing for Frank Lampard, he does one thing incredible in Coventry City training

Sky Sports Andy Hinchcliffe makes Sunderland claim against Coventry City

A recent run of terrible form to end the season for Sunderland means Le Bris was dividing Sunderland fans heading into these huge defining games. However, that would all be forgotten if the Black Cats win the play-offs, which a number of neutral fans are backing Sunderland to do.

Troy Deeney already outlined five reasons why Coventry could go all the way this year, and he also explained that Sunderland are underdogs due to poor recent form. However, they threw the form book out of the window.

Prior to the game, Andy Hinchliffe believed Sunderland are in a ‘difficult position’ due to the form of the team. He was on co-commentary duty for the game and summed up his thoughts on Sunderland at full-time.

Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: “I think, of course, there is that big second game to come. 

“It’ll be interesting to see how Sunderland approach that with taking the lead away from home at the CBS; I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted that.

“You see the scoreline and you think, ‘wow, that’s an amazing result’.  But how hard this team have worked to get there, just shows you don’t have to dominate the ball to win a football match.

“You’ve got to defend like demons, you’ve got to capitalise on defensive errors from the opposition, and that is exactly what Sunderland did. 

“They knew what kind of game was going to be in front of them and they approached it in just the right way.

“They were — to a man — outstanding tonight.”

It was a far cry from when Haji Wright scored a hat-trick the last time the sides met at the CBS in March, but Le Bris had a plan for Sunderland and his side enacted it perfectly after the Sunderland boss promised that a repeat of the 3-0 would not happen again.

• READ MORE: Sunderland star Eliezer Mayenda reveals reason why he joined ‘special’ Black Cats in 2023 despite interest from PSG

Coventry City 1-2 Sunderland — the key statistics

This was particularly impressive, given that the Black Cats have a worrying record against Cov and the fact Coventry had been so relentless at home for some time now, but Sunderland were excellent at the CBS and the gameplan was vindicated from Le Bris.

Sunderland have endured heartbreak at Wembley before, but getting there by beating Coventry in the second leg remains the first task. Sunderland legend Peter Reid hopes they can break their curse to make it all the way — and they have given themselves a fantastic opportunity to do so.

They will not cede as much of the ball in the North East, but the onus is now on Frank Lampard to take the game to them. That should allow for more transitional moments on the counter-attack for Sunderland in theory.