Sunderland moved into the Championship top ten as Dennis Cirkin's goal gave them victory at Cardiff City. Cirkin was back in the starting XI for the first time since recovering from the after-effects of concussion he suffered in February, and he marked the occasion by scoring on the hour in South Wales.
Sunderland should probably have won by a greater margin, but their defence stood firm to keep a clean sheet and that meant the single goal was enough. The win saw Sunderland move up to tenth in the table, and cut the gap between themselves and the play-off spots to four points with five games of the season remaining.
And, with back-to-back home games against Birmingham City and then Huddersfield Town coming up, Tony Mowbray's men have the chance to apply more pressure on the top six.
READ MORE: Dennis Cirkin scores on his return as Sunderland's win at Cardiff keeps play-off hopes alive
Here's how our Sunderland AFC writer James Hunter rated the players.
Anthony Patterson 7
Made one good save from Etete in the second half and claimed a lot of crosses
Trai Hume 7
Looked solid on the right side of a back three
Danny Batth 7
Made sure the back line stayed organised
Dennis Cirkin 8
Did a fine job defensively on the left side of the back three and reacted quickest to score the goal
Lynden Gooch 7
Played high up the pitch on the right and gave the side good width
Dan Neil 6
Worked hard in central midfield although the accuracy of his shooting left a bit to be desired
Pierre Ekwah 6
Strong in central midfield and showed no hangover after giving away that late penalty on Friday
Jack Clarke 7
Always a threat down the left, he caused Cardiff problems all afternoon and won the free-kick that led to the goal
Amad 7
Plenty of neat touches in and around the box, but just couldn't get the end product right
Abdoullah Ba 6
Saw a lot of the ball in the attacking third but needed to do more with it
Alex Pritchard 7
Played up front and did an excellent job for the team, with his free-kick leading to the goal
Subs
Edouard Michut 7
For Ekwah 72mins. Did OK when he came on
Patrick Roberts 6
For Ba 72mins. No real opportunities to impress when Sunderland were under pressure late on
Joe Gelhardt N/A
For Pritchard 79mins.
Not used: Bass, Taylor, Lihadji, Anderson
READ NEXT:
- Tony Mowbray sets Sunderland a short-term play-off goal as they take on Cardiff City
- Lynden Gooch on the individual errors that cost Sunderland against Hull City
- Tony Mowbray puts Pierre Ekwah's costly late error against Hull City down to 'naivety'
- Tony Mowbray praises 'great' Jack Clarke, after the youngster responds to half-time rocket
- Dan Ballard set to miss the remainder of Sunderland's season in 'huge blow', confirms Tony Mowbray
