BAILEY WRIGHT feels Sunderland’s players showed “a different side to their character” as they battled their way to a 2-1 win at Birmingham City this evening.
The Black Cats returned to the top half of the Championship table as goals from Ellis Simms and Amad Diallo secured victory at St Andrew’s.
However, with Lukas Jutkiewicz pulling a goal back for the Blues with 12 minutes remaining, Tony Mowbray’s side had to withstand a late barrage that stretched into seven minutes of injury time.
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Anthony Patterson was outstanding in the Sunderland goal, and with Trai Hume and Niall Huggins also impressing as makeshift full-backs, the Wearsiders held firm despite Birmingham finishing with three centre-forwards on the field.
Wright said: “We knew what we were going to be up against tonight. They’re a big physical side, very direct, and we had to dig deep, and we did.
“We showed a lot of character in a game that wasn’t too pretty, we showed a different side to our game, a different side and characteristics than we normally are.”
The Australian centre-half was delighted to have helped his side sign off with a win ahead of the World Cup finals, and will now turn his thoughts to representing his country in Qatar after being confirmed as part of the Socceroos squad earlier this week.
He said: “It’s (World Cup call up) the biggest honour you can have in your career, on the biggest stage possible. Me and my family are extremely proud.
“We wanted to get the result and go in on a high and now we can prepare for a massive tournament for us Aussies.”
While Wright will prepare to link up with the rest of the Australia squad in the Middle East, the majority of Sunderland’s players will have some welcome downtime before heading to Dubai for a warm-weather training break. They will return to Championship action in a home game with Millwall on December 3.
Simms said: “It’s a massive win. A few of the results in the past few games, we’ve been a bit unlucky. We knew we needed the points. We’ll rest and recover in the break and be right back at it when we’re back.”
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