Sunderland manager Alex Neil revealed the secret to their 3-2 victory against Bristol City on Saturday was by exploiting space on the flanks, particularly by creating an overload on the left side of the pitch.
Defensive errors cost the Robins and left them searching for their first points of the season but the Black Cats were clinical with their chances as strikers Ellis Simms and Ross Stewart threatened to expose the defensive frailties in the side.
Both sides had their chances but Nigel Pearson admitted his team could have little complaints with the scoreline in front of a packed Ashton Gate with a result that was a similar tale to last season.
Neil spoke about his tactics in his post-match interview by stating how his side executed their game plan in the build-up to the fixture. According to Whoscored, 42 per cent of their attacks came down their left side in comparison to 30 per cent on the right which handed wing-back Mark Sykes and Zak Vyner problems for large chunks of the contest.
When asked whether he specifically targeted City's right, Neil responded: "Yea to a point. Because Alex (Pritchard) drifted to the left side and we've got Jack (Clarke) outside of him so we can flood that side of the pitch.
"On the other side (Lyndon) Gooch drops down and we've got two strikers working down the sides of the channel so. Obviously, we had patterns of game plans and strategies on how we were going to attack the game.
"The left side was more get it into the pocket and get it wide. The other one was more get the lads down the sides and I thought on both sides it worked really well."
While Sunderland's first came through Kal Naismith's error in losing possession deep inside his own half, their equaliser came through Simms finding that pocket of space behind Vyner. Similarly to the winner, Clarke and Pritchard combined on that right side to create space for the cross in which Stewart headed past Dan Bentley.
Talking of Sunderland's front two, Neil added: "I thought the two of them were unbelievable.
"They absolutely ran the back three ragged all day for me. Ellis Simms scores, Ross scores, Ellis should have got another one and they had opportunities and chances throughout the game as well.
"I thought the two of them were an absolute handful. They were brilliant, really, really good. I thought Ellis was really strong, everything that went up to him he held the ball up and linked the game for us."
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