Sunderland 3-0 Millwall: Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Ellis Simms fire Black Cats to victory

Sunderland moved into the top half of the Sky Bet Championship table as they beat Millwall 3-0 on Saturday.

Goals from Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Ellis Simms in the second half proved enough at the Stadium of Light as the Black Cats climbed to 10th.

Millwall, meanwhile, drop out of the play-offs from sixth to seventh, missing the chance to leap as high as fourth

Pritchard inspires Sunderland win

Millwall enjoyed the better of the first half, creating the better of the chances in search of an opener.

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First it was Tom Bradshaw who went close on 24 minutes as he beat Luke O'Nien to the ball before looping a header over Anthony Patterson, only to see Danny Batth race back to clear the ball a couple of yards before the line.

In stoppage-time Patterson presented Zian Flemming with a glorious chance as he rolled the ball to him on the edge of the box with a loose pass, but the Millwall forward could only put it wide.

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But after the break it was Sunderland who took control, with Pritchard the driving force as his cross was put into the path of Diallo by Simms, with the Manchester United loanee simply unable to miss at the far post from just a couple of yards after 53 minutes.

On 58 minutes Pritchard doubled their lead, with his fierce drive from just inside the box proving too much for George Long, who got a hand to his effort but could not keep it out.

Sunderland capped off a fine display in the third minute of stoppage time as Simms latched onto a big punt upfield by Patterson that completely evaded Charlie Cresswell with a big bounce, before he rounded Long and slotted into an empty net.

What the managers said...

Sunderland's Tony Mowbray: "I wasn't too happy after the first half. I was honest in saying I felt they'd come second best in a fight. We never got any fluency in our game and they won too many second balls. They reacted really well and it shows the fine margins in football.

"I know we've got the quality to hurt teams but too often in the first half Millwall came out of the challenges (with the ball). That fine percentage switch turned the game and the individuality we've got won the game for us."

Millwall's Gary Rowett: "If you look at the first 45 minutes, I thought we were the better side. We were very good.Sunderland have the type of players where they can get in those little pockets, and they caused us problems for a 10-or-15-minute spell, but the best first-half chances by far fell to us.

"If you look at the big moments, then as an away team I was quite encouraged by the first-half performance. But what you can't do in this division is give away the first goal easily. That was the disappointment. We had a chance to clear the first goal but they ended up with a position where they had two against one in the box and then for the second goal Pritchard just wriggles past two of our players again. We have to get closer. The third goal can't be described any other way than as an absolute joke from our perspective."

Player of the Match - Alex Pritchard

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He will not be awarded an assist for the first goal, but it was his brilliant run and cross that created the opening and pivoted the game towards his side. He then performed to his evasive best to create the space to score his second.

What's next?

Sunderland are back in action on Monday, December 12 as they face West Brom live on Sky Sports Football. Coverage gets under way from 7.30pm; kick-off 8pm. Millwall host Wigan next Saturday in a 3pm clash.