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4 hours ago
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Wearside will always be a special place for James Milner. On Boxing Day 2002 he scored his first Premier League goal for Leeds here at the age of 16 years and 356 days. Who, back then, could possibly have imagined that the 40-year-old Milner would have been at the Stadium of Light on Saturday as an extremely impressive, deep-sitting part of Brighton’s midfield?
He played the entire game too, helping guide his team to their first win at Sunderland since 1981 as the injury-hit home side found no riposte to Yankuba Minteh’s fortuitous second-half winner. It briefly lifted Brighton to 10th, level on 40 points with their hosts, before Newcastle’s 1-0 win at Chelsea dropped them down a place.
“We controlled the game, we defended well, we created danger,” said Fabian Hürzeler, whose team have won three of their past four league matches. “We deserved to win. James Milner was a big part of that; when you’ve played as many games as him you know how to manage them.”
Régis Le Bris was sanguine. “Our end product is not the best at the moment, but the character is good,” he said. “We have many injuries and football is sometimes a bit harsh and unpredictable. We had a chance to change the game at the start of the second half disallowed for a few centimetres [offside]. But now we need to keep going.”
With Robin Roefs still hamstrung, Melker Ellborg made his home debut for Sunderland. The former Malmö goalkeeper sometimes looked over relaxed, but soon showed off some impressive potential by stretching out a leg to make a fine save to deny Jack Hinshelwood.
Arguably, no Brighton player ruffled Sunderland’s defence more than Hinshelwood as he asked that rearguard all sorts of awkward questions from his base in the No 10 role behind Danny Welbeck. Hinshelwood’s only problem was that, when Welbeck – remembered affectionately here because of his loan stint from Manchester United in 2010-11 – cued him up for a second scoring opportunity, he shot straight at Ellborg.
Injuries sustained in training by Nilson Angulo and Enzo Le Fée had created space in the starting XI. While Angulo could be out for six weeks, Sunderland’s manager hopes the influential Le Fée will, along with the similarly sidelined Roefs, Nordi Mukiele and Reinildo, recover in time for next Sunday’s visit to Newcastle.
Chris Rigg, though, will hope to keep his place after a strong performance wide on the right. The 18-year-old has spent most of this season out of Sunderland’s first team picture but, as his first-half overhead kick flew fractionally wide, Rigg served up a reminder of why he remains among England’s brighter young talents.
He thought he had scored his first Premier League goal at the start of the second half but a beautifully angled shot dispatched past Bart Verbruggen with his supposedly weaker right foot was disallowed. A video assistant referee review had detected that Omar Alderete – who had headed on Granit Xhaka’s free-kick – was offside in the preamble.
Shortly afterwards Brighton were ahead, courtesy of a fluke. When Sunderland failed to clear a corner, Minteh miscued an attempted cross and somehow netted from the tightest of angles as the ball’s flight deceived the unsighted Ellborg.
Given that Habib Diarra was lying prone in the area, and injured after being apparently fouled, Sunderland cried injustice but, much to their chagrin, Minteh’s goal stood.
It would surely have been all over had Diego Gómez not missed a Brighton sitter but, with Minteh becoming badly distracted – and fortunate not to be sent off – after being drawn into an argument with the streetwise Luke O’Nien, a Sunderland side who had earlier seen Lewis Dunk clear Chemsdine Talbi’s shot off the line regrouped.
“This is a very emotional place,” said Hürzeler who knew Minteh, who did well in an unfamiliar left-sided role, could easily have collected a second yellow card. “The crowd here are very loud; we had to protect Yankuba.”
They are also generous and, in a classy moment, Welbeck responded to a fan brandishing a “Welcome back Danny” banner by giving him his shirt at the end.
