The wait is finally over. Town have won in the Stadium of Light for the first time in their history and the victory in the end was comfortably secured.
It did not start that way however, and the opening phase belonged to the home side as for twenty minutes or more, they looked in control and the most likely team to break the deadlock. Debutants Ashley Fletcher and Ovie Ejaria were dominating possession and stretching Town’s defence time and time again.
But the Blues weathered this early storm and slowly but surely got a foothold in the game. Striker Garner opened the scoring when he held off Billy Jones, before turning expertly in the box and finding the bottom corner of the net with an instinctive strike.
And seconds before half time Ipswich Town increased their lead, when some great work down the right flank by Grant Ward lead to a low cross that evaded keeper Camp and was turned into his own net by Mathews – although Freddie Sears was next to him and looked initially to have scored himself.
The Sunderland fans were not impressed with the half time score line and booed their players off as they headed towards the players tunnel.
The second half saw the home side continue to press but the nearest they came to getting back into it was when Jonas Knudsen seemed to handle inside the box from a George Honeyman cross.
Martyn Waghorn should have put the game to bed when he was sent through by Garner and found himself with just the keeper to beat but he missed the target when it seemed easier to score.
In the end this horror miss did not really matter because Town continued to defend well and the longer the game went on, the more comfortable the Blues appeared.
Sunderland: Camp, Jones, O`Shea, Browning; Matthews (McGeady), Oviedo; Robson (Honeyman 57), Cattermole, Ejaria; Asoro (LuaLua 57), Fletcher
Ipswich Town: Bialkowski; Spence, Carter-Vickers, Chambers (captain), Knudsen; Skuse (Hyam 83), Connolly; Ward (Gleeson 74), Waghorn, Sears; Garner
Referee:Darren England
Attendance:27,909
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