Sunderland 1 Stoke City 5 live - Reaction from Alex Neil after ...
Stoke City return to Championship action as Alex Neil takes his squad to Sunderland bidding to claw their way up the league table.
Stoke are hoping to build on an encouraging mid-week performance despite defeat in the FA Cup against Brighton and Hove Albion and bounce back from a league defeat to Millwall last weekend.
It is a first return to the Stadium of Light for Stoke since a Marko Arnautovic-inspired 3-1 win there in 2017 - and for Neil since he left the Mackems for Stoke back in August, having recently guided the club to promotion from League One.
Sunderland are still holding out hopes they can break into the play-off picture and are hoping to rebound after defeats on the road at Rotherham and Coventry.
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Player ratings17:11
Peter Smith
Neil: "It's only a statement if you can back it up. I don't get carried away with one game. I'm pleased we won the match and obviously it was a big match for me personally but it's three points. It is what it is and we need to go the next game, need to back it up and make sure we have a continual good result and good performance scenario."
Peter Smith
Neil: "Ben took a heavy knock in the first half, it was a bad tackle and he had to go off. Sarkic had something with his quad but I don't know the extent of it just now."
Peter Smith
Neil: "It is what it is. I understand people's frustrations and I'm certainly not here to agitate anyone. I didn't try to agitate me on the day.
"But as Sunderland sampled when I was here, when I'm at a club I'm all in. I live and breathe the club and give everything I've got. That's probably where my disappointment comes from because when I was here, I gave every single thing I had to try to get success and I'll do the exact same thing at Stoke.
"I'm really passionate about my job, really passionate about the team. I'm sure supporters will understand that. Just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot today and what I would have got."
Peter Smith
Neil: "The one thing I'll say is that I loved it when I was here. I had a lot of chats with the guys in this room about how we were trying to move things forward. I felt I was as good for Sunderland as they were for me. I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to come here and manage the club because it was an unbelievable opportunity.
"It was always going to end in one of two ways; they are either want to get rid of me or else I'm going to leave at some point. I've got nothing but good things to say about Sunderland and everything about the club.
"The thing that might have been disappointing or frustrating is that I've been painted as a villain. There have been a lot of negative or untrue things said about me, which is disappointing. But at the end of the day I'm a big boy, I'm not going to sit here and cry about it.
"The only reason I enjoyed winning today was the people who don't really understand the dynamics of what happened and have labelled me as the bad guy. That's not right."
Peter Smith
Neil: "I knew that with Corry Evans missing, in terms of breaking through the middle of the pitch, they don't have a natural sitting midfield player. You knew that might be an issue for them because Will's got those legs and you know he's always going to land behind defence. We managed to exploit that.
"But it's all right saying that, you've got to go and carry out and do it. He did it extremely well."
Peter Smith
Neil: "We've spoken at length about sometimes not being as threatening as we should be during games. Today we carried a real threat. There were some times towards the end when we could have scored another couple of goals.
"I just thought we knew in transition that we were going to be a threat. I thought Will Smallbone was sensational again. From our perspective it was a great victory."
Peter Smith
Neil: "I've been confident for weeks! You've heard me say that we're in a good place, we're playing well, statistically we're really good. We've not always backed that up with results which is frustrating because people look at me thinking I'm talking nonsense.
"But I know what I'm doing, I've done it for a long time. I was really confident that we could put in a good performance and win the game.
"I understand Sunderland's strengths and where I think their weaknesses lie and we've probably done that side of the game - stopping what they're good at and hurting them - as well as we could have."
Peter Smith
Neil: "Yes, really well worked. I can understand Sunderland's frustration. I think Hoever has just come back on (after treatment) but the ref had done one previously with Dan Ballard. I had the same frustration. I was saying to the fourth official you can't allow someone to stay on the pitch for three minutes, he comes off and you put him back on. But he's done it for both teams - and unfortunately for Sunderland it's cost them a goal."
KEY EVENT
Neil: "We knew what type of game it was going to be and we wanted to make sure we restricted Sunderland playing in pockets like they do. They've got a lot of technical players in that area and we wanted to make sure they didn't get into flow in the game and also that when we turned the ball over we were going to be dangerous in transition. The game plan worked for us worked as well as it probably could.
"Once you get the first goal it opens up even more and they open up and become more expansive, which leaves more spaces for us to counter.
"I knew it was going to be contrasting styles and we're big, strong and powerful and Sunderland are smaller, technical and work the ball really well. It was going to be a case of who did it better and we did it better in the game, although goals change games, which we've discussed a few times this season.
"We're really, really pleased we won the game."
Peter Smith
Peter Smith
Played 15, won three, drew three, lost nine.
Peter Smith
Have your say in the comments section too.
KEY EVENT
Player ratings for Stoke at Sunderland. High scores all round and top marks for Will Smallbone.
READ THE RATINGS
16:55Peter Smith
Alex Neil is on the pitch. Going up to the Stoke fans to applaud and then every Stoke player.
Will Smallbone gets a hug.
Peter Smith
Well done Stoke!
90Peter Smith
Two added minutes.
85Peter Smith
Stoke fans are ole-ing.
82Peter Smith
Gayle shoots for his hat-trick but that's ended up in South Shields.
80Peter Smith
Campbell and Laurent make way for Tymon and Baker.
Both of those have been excellent today.
79Peter Smith
78Peter Smith
The home stands are all but empty.
76KEY EVENT
Dwight Gayle is on fire!
Smallbone's free-kick is lobbed into the area and Gayle is highest, prodding a header over keeper Anthony Patterson.
Gayle has the biggest grin on his face.
75Peter Smith
Michut is cheered for fouling Gayle, who fair threw himself to the groudn.
The home stands are emptying fast.
73Peter Smith
Beefore this game, Tony Mowbray has gone up against Stoke 14 times in all, losing eight and only winning three.
72Peter Smith
We're back underway and Morgan Fox makes a strong slide tackle to stop Luke O'Nien.
Hoever needs treatment now. He's getting stick from the Sunderland fans. You can understand their frustration but Tony Mowbray, who has been in football for a lifetime, has lost the plot He's got his head in his hands again after berating the fourth official.
71Peter Smith
The ref has stopped play for the emoment. Something was chucked at the Stoke players as they danced in front of the Sunderland fans celebrating that goal.
68KEY EVENT
Gayle!
Smallbone's corner is high and headed down by Brown, Fox's shot is well saved and it's Gayle pouncing in the six-yard box to smash home.
He runs away with his finger to his lips.
67Peter Smith
Thompson breaks out from midfield and fires a pass to Brown, who finds Hoever to cross. Ballard swipes and almost puts in his own net. Corner.
66Peter Smith
Sunderland fans are booing Pearson for limping off. He's being replaced by Thompson.
65Peter Smith
A big block from Jagielka after Neil thad a long ranger.
Pearson is down and needs treatment.
