Sunderland and lovely goals = a match made in heaven

Ellis Simms second goal v Bristol City

It was our second match back in the Championship and our first on the road.

After a strong start thanks to Ellis Simms, we found ourselves 2-1 down at Ashton Gate - that was however until debutant Simms cropped up with his second of the match.

The finish was composed, but wouldn’t have been possible without a beautiful through ball from Alex Pritchard. The long distance pass took out several defenders and made its way to Simms, who did well to keep his composure and pull us level.

Jack Clarke v Reading

This is one of those goals where, if it was scored by Manchester City or Real Madrid, people would still be talking about it on a daily basis.

The craftsmanship in this one was out of this world.

Slick one-touch passing from front to back carved the Reading backline up like a pumpkin, with the pick of the passes coming from Dan Neil to set up Clarke.

He took his first touch superbly well before making no mistake with the finish.

Beautiful.

Alex Pritchard v Huddersfield

This is a goal from which the quality didn’t really hit home until the morning after. Moments earlier Anthony Patterson made a top save to keep the score at 0-0, and it was his ball out which got the move rolling. Bailey Wright played a ball into Simms who cushioned it off to Pritchard. The former Terrier played it out to Paddy Roberts who ran at his man towards the box, played a quick one-two with Amad, and put it on a plate for Pritchard to slot home from close range.

It was slick, well planned and very well executed and it helped us on our way to our fourth away win of the campaign.

We are getting results regularly and proving that we can get the points on the board to have us hovering in and around the right end of the table. What is promising is that we continue to do so without several key players. The difference Ellis Simms made when he came on at Huddersfield was abundantly clear and we had a focal point back up top for the likes of Roberts, Amad and Pritchard to work off.

The win at Huddersfield came without Ross Stewart, Daniel Ballard and Jack Clarke, three players who will be back and raring to go at the start of December. Add into the mix the increasing improvement of Abdoullah Ba, Diallo, Roberts, a solid defence and undisputed number one keeper Anthony Patterson and you have the makings of a young and exciting side.

With these players at our disposal, we will no doubt score plenty more memorable goals this season on the way to what I’m confident will be a solid league position come May.