Sunderland 1 Wolves 3

Sunderland 1

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3

After being largely outplayed in the first half of this game Wolverhampton Wanderers stepped up the pace in the second to comfortably collect all three points long before the end. Barring a freak set of results next weekend the Black Country sides 40 points should be sufficient to ensure they kick off next season in the Premier League.

Defeat for Sunderland was their eighth in the last eleven home matches and with just fourteen points from sixteen league games this year they are fortunate that the season has just one match remaining. On a weekend when much was made of Manchester City supporters 35 years of pain it’s worth pointing out that Sunderland have won just one trophy in 75 years and yet there were still over 41,000 at the Stadium of Light to watch a team that seems no nearer than ever to winning anything.

It was the couple of thousand away fans that were celebrating first when ex-Sunderland man Jody Craddock pounced on Stephen Hunt’s cross to half volley the ball beyond Simon Mignolet. Wolves might even have doubled their lead but Jamie O’Hara was unlucky to see his shot hit the crossbar. Having missed a number of chances, and being unfortunate to see Bolo Zenden’s 20 yard shot crash back into play off the crossbar,  Steve Bruce’s side equalised when Zenden’s corner was allowed to travel across the penalty area where Stephane Sessegnon acrobatically hooked home.

Wolves went back into the lead on 54 minutes when Mignolet failed to follow the flight of Matt Jarvis’s cross leaving Steven Fletcher to head home only minutes after the former Burnley man had fluffed an opportunity when put clean through.

The home side should have had a chance to equalise from the penalty spot when a shaping to shoot Sessegnon had his legs taken from beneath him by a poor Hunt challenge and as the Wolves midfielder was also the last man he was lucky that referee Michael Jones missed an obvious infringement.

George Elokobi finished off Sunderland when he headed home O’Hara’s free kick and at the end the Wolves players and supporters celebrated loudly a deserved victory, their second of the season against the Wearsiders.