Danny Batth was Sunderland’s real hero

Sunderland moved as much as 12th within the Championship desk with a 2-1 win away at Birmingham Metropolis at St. Andrew’s on Friday evening.

They opened the scoring as Amad Diallo wriggled away from three defenders earlier than threading the ball by means of for Ellis Simms to clinically dispatch it previous John Ruddy and into the underside nook.

Scott Hogan then had an enormous probability to equalise earlier than half-time as he raced by means of on objective however Anthony Patterson unfold himself to make the block.

Diallo doubled the lead shortly after the restart as he collected possession in the best channel and labored his method into the field earlier than unleashing a superb curling effort into the far prime nook.

Birmingham pulled one again within the 78th minute as Lukas Jutkiewicz completed effectively contained in the field after Bailey Wright utterly missed the ball from a cross.

Patterson saved the three factors for the Black Cats as he made a terrific, point-black, block from Dion Sanderson’s highly effective effort within the six-yard field.

While Amad produced a objective and an help out broad and Patterson made two big saves, the actual hero for Tony Mowbray’s aspect was central defender Danny Batth.

Sunderland had been pinned in their very own half for a lot of the second half as the house aspect pushed onerous to get again into the sport, after which equalise, after Diallo’s strike.

Nonetheless, the Black Cats held sturdy till the tip to safe all three factors, and Batth’s heroic defending performed an enormous function within the victory.

The previous Stoke Metropolis tank was in an ideal place as a rule as he made a game-high 11 clearances. This reveals that he was in the best place on the proper time to clear his traces, stopping Patterson from being known as into motion a lot outdoors of the 2 large saves that he did make.

Batth gained 75% of his particular person duels (six out of eight) as he was in a position to bodily dominate the opposition forwards – regardless of enjoying towards the difficult pairing of Troy Denney and Scott Hogan – and win the ball again for Sunderland on a number of events.

Was Danny Batth man of the match?

As per SofaScore, the central defender additionally made three blocks and two tackles, while not being dribbled previous a single time all through the 90 minutes.

The immense enforcer was, due to this fact, the actual hero for Mowbray as he put his head and physique the place it damage to maintain Birmingham at bay again and again. He could not have scored a surprising objective or offered a phenomenal help however he did the soiled work that wanted to be carried out for the workforce to win and that’s the reason he deserves reward for his efficiency.