Article body analysed
Football
Sunderland
vs Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship.
3: 00pm, Saturday 8th March 2025.
Stadium of Light.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Sunderland and Cardiff City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday; Chris Mepham seals a late win for Regis Le Bris' Black Cats as they keep promotion hopes alive. Saturday 8 March 2025 18: 37, UK Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Sunderland maintained the pressure on their Championship promotion rivals with a hard-fought 2-1 win against Cardiff at the Stadium of Light. Bournemouth loanee Chris Mepham scored the winner 13 minutes from time after Isaak Davies had cancelled out Eliezer Mayenda's second-minute opener. With Sheffield United and Burnley both winning, the Black Cats remain eight points adrift of the second-placed Blades with 10 games to play. But Regis Le Bris' side have recovered from successive defeats to Leeds and Hull with back-to-back wins after last week's success at Sheffield Wednesday. Struggling Cardiff remain 21st but are now just four points above the relegation zone. Le Bris again decided to play Mayenda over Wilson Isidor up-front and the decision instantly paid off. After his double in the win over Wednesday last week, Mayenda opened the scoring after just two minutes, calmly finding the bottom corner after being teed up by Patrick Roberts. Romaine Mundle, who recently returned from a three-month injury absence, was bright and dangerous on the left. The winger had a shot blocked by Perry Ng after good build-up from Mayenda. It was one-way traffic. Trai Hume lashed a strike from the edge of the area just wide then Alan Browne did the same after a corner from the left was only half cleared.
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Sunderland were dealt a blow at the midway stage of the first half, however, when Roberts was forced off through injury. He was replaced by Chris Rigg but Sunderland lost some of their early swagger after the change. Cardiff threatened an equaliser on the half-hour mark when Callum Robinson's strike from 25 yards flashed just wide of Anthony Patterson's right post. The visitors drew level four minutes before the break. Patterson failed to deal with Callum O'Dowda's cross from the left, leaving Davies to tap into the empty net. Mayenda had a chance to put the hosts back in front in the last minute of the first half when he latched onto Jobe Bellingham's through-ball and rounded Ethan Horvath but could only find the side-netting. Both sides had chances in the early stages of the second half. Rigg's shot was tame after a rapid Sunderland counter before Cardiff broke away at the other end and Yousef Salech's close-range effort was superbly tipped on to the post by Patterson. Isidor was introduced just before the hour-mark and played a key role in the winner. After a well worked free-kick, the striker's cross was turned in by Mepham inside the six-yard box. Sunderland's Regis Le Bris: "Mayenda is doing very well. I've said it before, he's a good example for all the team. He was on the bench for a long period but kept working, kept trying to be involved with the team and kept trying to improve his levels. Now he's really impressive. "Here at Sunderland we can't buy players at that level so we need to build them. He's playing really well. "We scored early and for 20 minutes we were really good. "It was the way we want to play. We were sharp and quick so I was disappointed at half-time. If we'd maintained that level we could have scored two or three more goals. " Cardiff's Omer Riza: "I'm disappointed to not leave with a point. I thought we did enough to earn a point. We switched off in a key moment, lost focus and lost the game 2-1 to a free-kick that was cheap. That's frustrating and disappointing. "Having got back in the game, we could have scored again when the keeper made a good save. It's disappointing. "We showed good character to get back in the game after conceding early. I thought we were on top at times against a good young side. To come here and play the way we did in certain phases of the game was pleasing. "But you can't afford to switch off like we did because you get punished and that's disappointing. " The £250, 000 is up for grabs with Super 6, and as always it is completely free to play. Entries by 3pm Saturday.
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