Sunderland close in on leaders after Isidor strike sees off Sheffield United
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Wilson Isidor, Jobe Bellingham and the rest of Régis Le Bris’s vibrant young side are not about to give up on automatic promotion quite yet. This statement victory, secured thanks to Isidor’s fine winning goal, not merely preserved Sunderland’s unbeaten home record in the Championship this season but kept them fourth, only two points and one place behind a suddenly mortal-looking Sheffield United.
![[Sheffield United’s Kieffer Moore reacts after his early penalty is saved.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c7121193229bed4853db4268c314b7e0d7951dd0/0_389_4258_2697/master/4258.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Three games without a win has left Chris Wilder’s team three points in arrears of the leaders, Leeds and trailing second-place Burnley on goal difference. Given that the round trip from Bramall Lane to the Stadium of Light is 260 miles by road, an 8pm kick-off on a public holiday coinciding with a wholesale public transport shutdown in the north-east was probably not the brightest of ideas.
Throw in the sort of wintry weather that turned afternoon rain to freezing evening sleet and it was small wonder that many Sheffield United supporters making the trek north from South Yorkshire cursed the television schedulers. Not that those broadcast executives would care about live spectators struggling to de-ice frozen post-match car windscreens on a night that served up sufficient dramatic subplots to divert an armchair audience possibly disappointed by the absence of some leading lights.
With both sides suffering from a series of the sorts of injuries that tend to bite when the fixture list becomes heavily congested, Sheffield United arrived without, among others, their leading scorer Tyrese Campbell while Le Bris’s 17-year-old prodigy Chris Rigg remained in Sunderland’s treatment room.
