Ross Stewart scored the only goal as Sunderland got the better of Sheffield Wednesday in the first leg of their League One play-off semi-final.
The forward netted his 25th goal of the season to give the Sunderland the advantage heading into Monday night’s return leg at Hillsborough.
The Black Cats could have won more comfortably. Though with their one-goal lead, they have a lot of work still to do in the second leg.
Sunderland vs Wednesday matters for financial as well as football reasons
Sunderland started brightly in front of a crowd of 44,742 with Patrick Roberts testing Peacock-Farrell with a fourth-minute shot after latching on to Stewart’s knock-down and cutting inside.
Defender Danny Batth only just failed to make contact with Alex Pritchard’s near-post corner as Wednesday found themselves pinned back deep inside their own half in the early stages.
The Owls were making little impression as an attacking force, although Black Cats defender Bailey Wright had to make an important challenge to deny Lee Gregory a 21st-minute run at goal, and the striker headed straight at keeper Anthony Patterson from a challenging angle four minutes later.
Corry Evans screwed a left-foot shot well wide after Roberts and Stewart had linked well nine minutes before the break, but Patterson had to come from his line to collect Massimo Luongo’s driven cross ahead of Gregory after the midfielder had got in behind full-back Dennis Cirkin.
But it was Sunderland who took the lead in first-half stoppage time when Sam Hutchinson failed to deal with Cirkin’s ball over the top and Stewart raced away to score at the second attempt after Peacock-Farrell had blocked his initial effort.
Pritchard was unfortunate to see his curling 52nd-minute effort come back off the crossbar with Peacock-Farrell beaten, but the keeper did get his fingertips to the midfielder’s clipped shot three minutes later with the home side well on top.
Hutchinson had to block a goal-bound Roberts shot…
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