Ipswich 2-1 Sunderland: Jack Clarke nets dramatic late winner against his former club as Gary O'Neil starts tenure with victory

Former Sunderland player Jack Clarke struck a 90th-minute winner for Ipswich Town on their return to the Premier League in a 2-1 win over the Black Cats.

Under new head coach Gary O'Neil, the newly-promoted team named seven new signings in their starting XI and one of them, Emersonn, opened the scoring after an error by Luke O'Nien.

Ex-Brighton forward Julio Enciso had impressed during a six-month loan at Town last year and punished O'Nien's pass by squaring for his striker to slide home.

Nilson Angulo struck Sunderland level with a stunning free-kick just before the break but the European qualifiers couldn't kick on after the break.

An Abdul Fatawu cross in the 50th minute was fractionally too high for former Celtic attacker Daizen Maeda before a second fine delivery into the area was flicked inches wide by Enciso.

Marcelino Nunez made a timely block to thwart Brobbey before Enciso produced another mazy run but Emersonn could not find Maeda from the resulting cross.

With the game fizzling out, it was Clarke who sprang from the bench to punish another poor Sunderland giveaway - this time from Omar Alderete. It was a classy finish from the winger, who signed from the north-east club in 2024 for £15 million.

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The key moments from Portman Road...

• 3: GREAT BLOCK! Brobbey escapes the Ipswich offside trap but is denied by a fantastic last-gasp tackle from Leif Davis.
• 24: GOAL! O'Nien plays a horror pass out from the back which allows Enciso to charge into the box and square for Emersonn to score his first Ipswich goal.
• 39: GOAL! Sunderland respond in style as Angulo bends home a stunning effort from 25 yards.
• 52: BLOCK! A flurry of chances after half-time for both teams with the best of the bunch dropping to Brobbey, who again is denied by a last-gasp block.
• 90: GOAL! With the game looking set for stalemate after a host of substitutions, Clarke takes full advantage of a slack Omar Alderete pass and curls home from 20 yards.

'A cruel result'

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris said:

"The result is a bit cruel because we dominated the ball but dominating possession doesn't mean you win the game.

"They were well organised and ready to exploit our turnovers. Now it is about us, we have to show more composure.

"Our goal was a nice goal, happy for him [Angulo] but it is still a defeat. We will try to analyse quickly this defeat to go forward."

Analysis: O'Neil lays down his marker

Sky Sports' Lewis Jones:

O'Neil needed a fast start as Ipswich boss - to give everyone the chance to move on from McKenna and turn the next page.

McKenna had taken the club from League One to the Premier League, created an identity and made Ipswich believe they belonged at this level.

That is a difficult act to follow.

O'Neil, though, has now got his first significant result to put his name on.

There was an authority in flashes about Ipswich's performance that suggested they aren't simply going to be making up the numbers this season. They were aggressive without the ball, willing to commit bodies forward and, crucially, showed the character to respond when Sunderland threatened to wrestle control away from them.

There will inevitably be comparisons with McKenna for a while. That's natural. But the quickest way to silence those is to win football matches.

Ipswich have done exactly that.

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