Sunderland 2-1 Norwich City: Jobe Bellingham hits winner in Black Cats comeback

Jobe Bellingham fired Sunderland to a comeback victory for the second week on the trot as they maintained their Sky Bet Championship promotion drive with a hard-fought 2-1 win over 10-man Norwich.

Trailing to Anis Slimane's opener, the Black Cats levelled through Dan Ballard before Bellingham snatched the points with 18 minutes remaining - slightly earlier than he did in last weekend's 3-2 win at Swansea - shortly after defender Jose Cordoba's dismissal.

The hosts started strongly, with Patrick Roberts seeing an early shot deflected wide and Eliezer Mayenda flashing the ball across the six-yard box, but as Borja Sainz worked his way into the game down the Norwich left, the visitors began to make an impression.

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Canaries playmaker Marcelino Nunez had enjoyed early success with a series of balls over the top, but the swirling wind made that tactic less effective as time wore on.

Anthony Patterson was called upon to make the game's first save from Emiliano Marcondes' 21st-minute shot, but he was beaten from the resulting corner when, after Sainz's ball in had been headed back, he blocked Slimane's initial attempt but could not repel his follow-up.

Mayenda looked to be the Black Cats' best chance of finding a way back into the game with his direct approach, but they trailed at the break and deservedly so.

The home side returned knowing they would have to be significantly better if they were to get something out of the game, and they were back in it within two minutes.

Ballard headed Luke O'Nien's free-kick back across goal from beyond the far post and when Mayenda returned the ball to the middle, the central defender was on hand to dispatch it past goalkeeper Angus Gunn from close range.

Both sides were wasteful in possession as they attempted to gain the upper hand, and Nunez was fortunate to escape when he tried to work a short free-kick with Jack Stacey but handed the ball straight to Wilson Isidor, who raced clear from his own half only to blaze over.

The visitors' fortunes took a turn for the worse with 20 minutes remaining when central defender Cordoba was sent off for a second bookable offence and from the resulting free-kick, Bellingham created space for himself inside the box before curling a shot across Gunn and inside the far post.

Patterson tipped a late effort from substitute Ashley Barnes onto a post, but that was as close as Norwich came to rescuing a point.

The managers

Sunderland's Regis Le Bris:

"Jobe is so powerful. He wants to affect the game and he has the good quality to do it, so it's not a big surprise for us. But you have to do it on the pitch and he did very well today again to score the second goal.

"The character of the team was very good, even if during half-time we were not happy with the way we played in the first half. It was very clear, the lack of quality to play the football we want to play.

"But it was clear in our mind, so rather than searching for bad reasons, it was clear, it was about us and only us. We tried to do a better second half and the character was here even if the weather, the conditions, the opponent created many unstable situations."

Norwich's Johannes Hoff Thorup:

"The first goal they score, it's all right, we can deal with that. One-one after 60 minutes, that's all right for us, we can still create good moments, we can still push a little bit towards the end.

"But definitely, we need to improve in scoring that second goal and making sure that we give ourselves a better position in situations than only being 1-0 up because it can change so quickly, and you can see that in more or less all the other games in the league as well."

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