Alex Neil says his Stoke City side were 'more than a match' for 'very good' Sunderland

Alex Neil led Stoke City to victory against his former employers Sunderland at the bet365 Stadium to climb away from the relegation zone

Alex Neil says his struggling Stoke City side proved 'more than a match' for 'very good' Sunderland as they ran out 2-1 winners at the bet365 Stadium. Neil led the Potters to a second successive victory against his former employers following their 5-1 win on Wearside in March.

This game was a tighter affair with Ryan Mmaee giving Stoke an early lead - a goal that Sunderland felt should have been disallowed for handball - which was cancelled out almost immediately by Jack Clarke, before Luke McNally headed what turned out to be the winner from a set-piece just after half-time. It ended Sunderland's run of three away wins in a row, and eased the pressure on Neil as his team won only their second league game in nine to climb one place to fifth-bottom.

"I think you can see that we're very much a team in transition," said Neil, who left Sunderland to take over at Stoke in August 2022. "That's frustrating for me because in the Championship you have to win games.

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"I understand that. Our fans have been great with us against Southampton, Leicester and again today and I think they understand where we are as a club.

"It can sometimes be frustrating because you want your club to win every game, you want to be really successful, you want to push on and be further up the league and naturally we want to be further up the league than what we are. But I think we need to recognise where we currently are and that we do have great potential.

"I thought that for large spells, particularly in the first half, I thought we were very good. Then I thought again once we scored the second goal, for probably about a 15-20 minute spell, I thought we were very good and probably should have finished the game off.

"Naturally Sunderland then piled pressure on us at the end of the game. We had to cling on but I think those games are the best ones to win.

"You need to really dig in and you come off with a real feeling of satisfaction. Against a really good side, I thought we were more than a match for them."

Stoke worked to exploit Sunderland's lack of height at set-pieces and it paid off for them with defender McNally's goal from a corner.

Neil said: "What we know Sunderland, obviously having been there, is that they have got a lot of small technical players and they're very good – very, very good – but naturally they don't have massive size across the patch, hence the reason they go zonal.

"If we can isolate somebody at the back post, which we did with Luke, then we can capitalise."