Huddersfield Town 0-2 Sunderland – Match Report & Player Ratings

Report

The Black Cats got a much needed win at The John Smith’s Stadium, as they move up to 12th in the table.

The game had a slow start, with both teams struggling to create chances.

Sunderland had 2 chances to take the lead half way through the first half, Dennis Cirkin’s volley went a whisker wide before Corry Evans effort was saved minutes later.

Early in the second half, Huddersfield almost took the lead, Duane Holmes ran through and his shot was brilliantly saved, the ball came out to Jordan Rhoades who had his back to goal and turned smartly but his shot sailed over the bar.

1 minute later, Patrick Roberts played a brilliant 1-2 with Amad Diallo on the right wing and Roberts played a delightful ball back to Alex Pritchard who got his first goal of the season against his former club.

The Terriers started to put the Black Cats under a lot of pressure as they searched for an equaliser.

Their main chance came when Jack Rudini’s cross fell to Ben Jackson who drove his shot well wide with 5 minutes remaining.

Huddersfield started to throw everything at it towards the end, which allowed Jay Matete to start a Sunderland breakaway, as his through ball to Amad created a 3 on 1 situation and after playing a 1-2 with Ellis Simms, his shot went through the ‘keepers legs to make it 2-0 in the 96th minute.

Player Ratings

Anthony Patterson – 7

Didn’t have much to do, but was strong in coming out for crosses.

Luke O’Nien – 8

Really strong defensively against his man and put in a shift supporting Roberts in attack.

Danny Batth – 7

Comfortable, kept a much needed clean sheet

Bailey Wright – 7

Similar to Batth.

Dennis Cirkin – 6

Did well defensively but struggled at times going forward.

Corry Evans – 7

Typical calm performance, took the sting out of the game when it was needed.

Elliot Embleton – 6

Relatively quiet, 1 brilliant block to deny Huddersfield the lead.

Alex Pritchard – 8

Much better compared to his recent performances, always closed them down, looked to create every time he had the ball and took his goal well.

Patrick Roberts – 7

Looked dangerous every time he had the ball, brilliant link up play with Amad to create the first goal.

Amad Diallo – 8

Ran his socks off all night and capped it off with a well taken goal.

Leon Dajaku – 5

Really struggled up front, never got a site of goal and didn’t see much of the ball.

Ellis Simms – 7

We look like a much better team when we have a striker. Held up the ball well at times and got an assist in the dying embers of the game.

Abdoullah Ba – 8

Fantastic when he came on, got stuck in and looked very calm on the ball.

Dan Neil – 7

Some good interceptions and always looked to move us up the pitch.

Jay Matete – 6

Came on and did a decent job in midfield.

Jewison Bennette – N/A

Came on with minutes left.

MoTM – Luke O’Nien