Gusto of Russell sees off Coventry

Sunderland 1 Coventry City

The North-East is not a happy hunting ground for Ron Atkinson's Coventry. A fortnight ago Middlesbrough's creativity ran rings around the side Atkinson has expensively assembled; for 60 minutes on Saturday it was unable to raise itself in face of a resolute Sunderland.

When Coventry did awaken, they found themselves behind. "Their goal stirred us and after that we had our best spell," Atkinson said. "Our performance in the last half hour may have covered up a lot of what went before, but even then we were wasteful. And in the first hour we didn't play at all."

But for Tony Coton's fine saves from Dion Dublin and Noel Whelan in a frantic final five minutes, Coventry might have had something to show for their travels. But it would have been undeserved for, until the 69th minute, the Sunderland keeper's only employment had been to hoof back- passes.

Atkinson's assemblage should be better balanced. John Salako and Paul Telfer on the wings have the trickery, Kevin Richardson is the anchor man and Gary McAllister the playmaker for Whelan and Dublin to score from. But Paul McAllister was a blinkered visionary, reduced to playing square balls in front of his back four.

Yet Sunderland were little better. By half-time the Roker faithful, who have already had to endure dreadful goalless games against Leicester and West Ham, were becoming restless as Niall Quinn's bloody-mindedness received scant support.

Their uneasiness was exacerbated by seeing Quinn depart with damaged knee ligaments, but this was the making of the victory and of the first home goal from open play this season.

His replacement, Craig Russell, brought gusto and enthusiasm and within six minutes of the restart he had set up Steve Agnew for a well-taken winner.

"We did feel the crowd's anxiety but the one thing we have at this club is team spirit and we were determined to grind through to get a result," said Agnew. Goal: Agnew (51) 1-0. Sunderland (4-4-2): Coton; Hall, Melville, Ord, Scott; Gray, Bracewell, Ball, Agnew; Stewart, Quinn (Russell 39). Substitutes not used: Perez (gk), Smith, Rae, Howey. Coventry City (4-4-2): Ogrizovic; Shaw (Jess, 68), Daish (Hall, 57), Borrows, Burrows; Telfer, Richardson, McAllister, Salako; Dublin, Whelan. Substitutes not used: O'Neill, Ducros, Filan (gk). Referee: M Riley (Leeds). Bookings: Sunderland: Scott. Coventry: Daish, Telfer. Man of the match: Russell. Attendance: 19,459.