If any team in the Championship needed an afternoon like this – Jobe Bellingham turning a 2-0 lead into a 3-2 win at Swansea City – it was Sunderland.
If goals and wins have been in short supply for Regis Le Bris’ team recently, so too has excitement.
A flurry of draws, three of them 0-0 stalemates, and familiar failings in the final third. So, when Sunderland found themselves two-nil down at Swansea with only 17 minutes on the clock, it was difficult to imagine a Black Cats side who had mustered only six goals in their previous eight Championship games making much of a fist of things.
The jubilant celebrations which set a small corner of the Swansea.com Stadium rocking, then, arose not only out of relief but of bewilderment too.
Regis Le Bris learned an ‘important’ lesson about Sunderland’s character in South Wales. The coach has spent the last few weeks bemoaning his player’s wastefulness in the final third – questioning their ‘desire’ to break down deep-lying defences – so the manner in which the Wearsiders turned things around may have pleased Le Bris even more than the three points.
Chris Rigg will get the assist for Jobe Bellingham’s 76th minute strike, racing onto a Patrick Roberts pass and drilling his cross into the penalty area for the onrushing midfielder.
But, speaking at full-time, a smiling Jobe was keen to highlight the role Wilson Isidor played in proceedings. Isidor’s darting run to the near post drew Ben Cabango away, opening up the space Bellingham needed to finish in a manner reminiscent of his Galactico brother.
Jobe Bellingham highlights Wilson Isidor role in Sunderland winner
“Character is the big word really,” Bellingham said at full-time. “In the first-half, we weren’t at the races really. Obviously, I made the mistake for the second goal and you’re trying to gather your thoughts really.
“There is still a game to play. You’ve got to try and rectify the mistakes. The fans have come so far and I’m so glad we got that moment together. Unbelievable.
“Just before [the winning goal], I said to Wilson; ‘Just keep attacking the front post and try and create space for me at the back’. That’s routine really but I just emphasised it to him and I thought; I’ve just got to keep hitting the six-yard box, keep hitting the box.
“Riggy got in a great position, Pat did some good work and I thought ‘you’ve got to cross it’ so I just made my way into the frame of the goal really, and I just smashed it in.
“So, yeah, a great feeling.”
Isidor has now gone six games without a goal.
But there is a reason why the Zenit St Petersburg loanee remains one of the first names on Le Bris’ team sheet. The Sunderland boss has hailed Isidor’s work-rate, his movement, and his refusal to give the opposition backline even a moments’ piece.
And, without that selfless running, Bellingham might not have been in the position to lift Sunderland back above Burnley into third place.
“Wilson Isidor put a shift in today,” Sunderland legend Gary Bennett told BBC Radio Newcastle. “He did cause problems. We thought he’d score one of them goals where it’d just hit him and it’s going to go in.
“And that’s the only thing that’s missing today, Wilson Isidor getting a goal.”
Jobe says Swansea City comeback shows Sunderland’s maturity
Bellingham, meanwhile, felt the nature of Sunderland’s fightback was proof of how much this young team have learned over the last year or so.
“I remember Plymouth last year [a game Sunderland lost in November 2023],” the former Birmingham City starlet adds. “Obviously, the fans are on your back.
“And you come to a stadium where where you know, when [Swansea] score, they usually win. When they score, they take control of games. They are a really good side.
“You look at that Plymouth game. There was a Southampton game last year [as well] where you go two goals down and you’ve got to you’ve got to show some character.
“We’ve really learned from from that, and that’s all you can do in those tough situations. You’ve just got to learn and keep moving. And I think, today, we showed that how much we’ve learned in the past year, not only individually but as a team.”