Sunderland vs Oxford United. Sky Bet Championship.
Stadium of LightAttendance40,654.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Oxford United at the Stadium of Light on Saturday; Jobe Bellingham and Wilson Isidor net as league-leading Black Cats cruise to a comfortable win.
Saturday 26 October 2024 18:28, UK
Sunderland cemented their position at the top of the Sky Bet Championship as they claimed a dominant 2-0 win over Oxford.
Having claimed back-to-back away victories over Hull and Luton in the last week, the Black Cats made it three wins in the space of six days as they continued their impressive start to the season at the Stadium of Light.
Jobe Bellingham's 16th-minute header opened the scoring, with the midfielder also hitting the crossbar in the second half, before Wilson Isidor claimed a second Sunderland goal with a superb first-time volley.
Oxford were unable to ask any serious questions of the Sunderland defence, with Des Buckingham's side still to claim a first away win of the season.
The Black Cats dominated throughout, indeed the only surprise about their opening goal was that it took 16 minutes to arrive.
Jamie Cumming had already produced a superb save by that stage, tipping Patrick Roberts' goal-bound free-kick around the post, and Isidor had also gone close as he headed Trai Hume's cross just wide of the upright.
When Hume delivered another excellent ball into the box a few moments later, however, the home side were not to be denied.
Bellingham burst between two Oxford defenders to meet Hume's cross, and the midfielder directed a powerful header into the bottom right-hand corner to claim his second goal of the season.
With Sunderland's slick passing play slicing open the Oxford defence seemingly at will, the chances continued to come.
Roberts' shot was blocked after he broke across the face of the penalty area, before Cumming was called into action again to tip Chris Rigg's strike over the crossbar after a superb piece of skill from Bellingham had sent the youngster racing towards the 18-yard box.
Simon Moore, who was making his first league start for Sunderland in place of the injured Anthony Patterson, was not tested at all in the home side's goal before the break, but his first significant involvement came eight minutes into the second half when he claimed a driven cross from Ciaron Brown that was threatening to fly in.
That was a rare moment of threat from the visitors though, and Sunderland came within an inch or two of doubling their lead just before the hour mark as Bellingham flicked the top of the crossbar with a curled effort from the edge of the area.
A second goal felt inevitable, and it arrived in the 63rd minute courtesy of a brilliant finish from Isidor.
Dan Neil floated a pass into the box, and after watching the ball sail over his shoulder, Isidor directed a wonderful first-time volley into the far corner via the inside of the post.
Sunderland's Regis Le Bris:
"It has been a tough week, and it wasn't easy to manage this game because it was the third one in six days.
"I think we had good control of the game, especially during the first half, and we could have scored one or two more goals to be more comfortable in the second half.
"But we also needed to stay consistent right to the end, and I think the way we played is good for the progress of the team. I am happy because the players did well in terms of the way they managed the game to win. I think we deserved to win the game."
Oxford's Des Buckingham:
"The result is a loss, but I think we've come up against a very good Sunderland side. They're clearly in good form. They're at the top of the table, and I think they've shown the quality that this league does have.
"We've got off to a good start ourselves, and I'd say this is the first away game where we've come and we've had a team be on top of the game as much as they were. They stopped us from being able to do what we wanted to do.
"We never really settled in at any moment to be comfortable to be able to play. But Sunderland didn't give us the time to do it anyway. It's in those moments where you have to brave to still play, but it's about being able to do that at the speed that is required. We're quickly finding that, at this level, the physical demands of the league are higher to what we've faced (in League One)."
