Sunderland maintained the pressure on their Championship promotion rivals with a hard-fought 2-1 win against Cardiff at the Stadium of Light.
Bournemouth loanee Chris Mepham scored the winner 13 minutes from time after Isaak Davies had cancelled out Eliezer Mayenda’s second-minute opener.
With Sheffield United and Burnley both winning, the Black Cats remain eight points adrift of the second-placed Blades with 10 games to play. But Regis Le Bris’ side have recovered from successive defeats to Leeds and Hull with back-to-back wins after last week’s success at Sheffield Wednesday.
Struggling Cardiff remain 21st but are now just four points above the relegation zone.
Le Bris again decided to play Mayenda over Wilson Isidor up-front and the decision instantly paid off. After his double in the win over Wednesday last week, Mayenda opened the scoring after just two minutes, calmly finding the bottom corner after being teed up by Patrick Roberts.
Romaine Mundle, who recently returned from a three-month injury absence, was bright and dangerous on the left. The winger had a shot blocked by Perry Ng after good build-up from Mayenda.
It was one-way traffic. Trai Hume lashed a strike from the edge of the area just wide then Alan Browne did the same after a corner from the left was only half cleared.
Sunderland were dealt a blow at the midway stage of the first half, however, when Roberts was forced off through injury.
He was replaced by Chris Rigg but Sunderland lost some of their early swagger after the change. Cardiff threatened an equaliser on the half-hour mark when Callum Robinson’s strike from 25 yards flashed just wide of Anthony Patterson’s right post.
The visitors drew level four minutes before the break. Patterson failed to deal with Callum O’Dowda’s cross from the left, leaving Davies to tap into the empty net.
Mayenda had a chance to put the hosts back in front in the last minute of the first half when he latched onto Jobe Bellingham’s through-ball and rounded Ethan Horvath but could only find the side-netting.
Both sides had chances in the early stages of the second half. Rigg’s shot was tame after a rapid Sunderland counter before Cardiff broke away at the other end and Yousef Salech’s close-range effort was superbly tipped on to the post by Patterson.
Isidor was introduced just before the hour-mark and played a key role in the winner.
After a well worked free-kick, the striker’s cross was turned in by Mepham inside the six-yard box.
