Hull City 1 - 4 Sunderland

The Sbragia effect

Updated: December 20, 2008, 5:31 PM UK

Managerless Sunderland struck three late goals to continue their revival under caretaker boss Ricky Sbragia with a 4-1 win at 10-man Hull.

• Sbragia remains non-committal

Sunderland were second best in the first half after veteran Nick Barmby cancelled out Steed Malbranque's superb opener.

But the Wearsiders finished strongly in the final 13 minutes after an own goal from Kamil Zayatte and further efforts from Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse.

The game had looked to be heading for a draw until Kieran Richardson's shot took a wicked deflection off Zayatte to give the visitors the lead.

The game then got beyond Hull as Sam Ricketts was sent off soon after for two bookable offences.

Sunderland went into the game unchanged as Sbragia kept faith with the side that secured last week's morale-boosting 4-0 win over West Brom.

Hull made one enforced change with on-loan right-back Paul McShane unable to play against his parent club.

Bernard Mendy dropped back to fill the defensive role with Richard Garcia coming in on the right wing but it was on the opposite flank, through Barmby, where Hull impressed early on.

Barmby, making his fourth successive start, had the first shot on goal when a Nyron Nosworthy header fell at his feet but he dragged his long-range effort wide.

Malbranque showed him how it could be done with a brilliant strike to give Sunderland the lead after 10 minutes.

The Frenchman was found in good space by Danny Collins 20 yards from goal and he calmly picked his spot and clipped a sweet shot over Boaz Myhill.

But Hull showed more of the resilience that continues to serve them so well in their remarkable maiden top-flight campaign and were level eight minutes later.

It came from a long Myhill ball with Michael Turner getting forward to reach a Zayatte flick-on and shoot at Marton Fulop.

The goalkeeper saved from point-blank range but Barmby was lurking in the area and blasted home in the ensuing goalmouth scramble.

It was his first goal in the Premier League since finding the target for Leeds in a win over Aston Villa in May 2003.

Hull stepped up the pressure and were unfortunate not to take lead after dominating the rest of the first half.

Barmby was at the heart of much of their attacking play and both he and Geovanni forced saves out of Fulop.

Turner also headed over from a Marlon King cross after Sunderland failed to clear a corner.

A Nosworthy mistake then allowed Ian Ashbee to seize possession but King was unable to take advantage and shot well wide.

Geovanni then brought a good save out of Fulop with a dipping free-kick from 20 yards.

Fulop flapped at the resulting corner and his goal looked in danger as Ashbee fired in a shot but referee Mike Riley blew for a foul on the goalkeeper.

Malbranque should have restored Sunderland's lead against the run of play but missed the target from 10 yards just before the interval.

Sunderland were much steadier after the break and cancelled out Hull's attacking threat.

It was not until just before the hour that either goal was threatened again as Richardson found space and extended Myhill from 25 yards.

Hull changed their approach with striker Daniel Cousin coming on to replace Garcia.

Cousin was almost immediately into the action after Ricketts broke into the area but Anton Ferdinand intercepted.

Sunderland got forward again with Cisse crossing for Jones but Turner just managed to get a foot in.

Jones then appealed for a penalty after a challenge by Ricketts but Riley was uninterested.

Barmby's hard-working shift came to an end after 67 minutes when replaced by Stelios Giannakopoulos.

Cousin had the ball in the net on 72 minutes after good work by Geovanni but was flagged offside.

Cisse, sporting a green Mohican, then got forward to shoot from distance but Myhill beat the ball away.

Sunderland came again and Richardson got lucky when his shot hit Zayatte and wrong-footed Myhill.

Things got worse for Hull three minutes later as Ricketts, having just been booked for a foul on Malbranque, was given a second yellow card for a poor challenge on Bardsley.

Sunderland took advantage of their numerical advantage and killed off the game six minutes from time when Malbranque fired in a cross and Jones headed home from close range.

There was still time for more as Cisse broke clear in injury time and shot low past Myhill.

Sbragia remains non-committal

Sunderland caretaker boss Ricky Sbragia remained non-committal on whether he wanted the job full-time after guiding his side to a second successive win today.

Roy Keane's former assistant boss said: "We just want to keep it going. If it isn't broken why mend it? I'm happy with how things are going. We've got a big game against Blackburn on Boxing Day and we just have to focus on that.

"I'm happy with what I am doing and the players are responding extremely well. I just want to keep it going. For me it is just focusing on Blackburn and trying to enjoy a little bit of Christmas."

Sbragia added: "We had a little bit of luck with the second goal but if you don't shoot you don't score. We'd have been happy to see it out at 2-1 but unfortunately for Hull they had a man sent off and that made it a little bit easier for us.

"The players have gelled extremely well today and it breeds a lot of confidence when we get a win."

Defeat ended Hull's five-game unbeaten run and cost them the chance to move level with fifth-placed Arsenal on 30 points. Boss Phil Brown felt his side had been well beaten.

Brown said: "There's massive disappointment that we didn't bring our capabilities to the table. We have performed well on a number of occasions but that was probably one of our worst performances.

"It's a poor day at the office in terms of the scoreline. It's a result I couldn't see coming, I didn't think Sunderland were going to cause us that kind of a problem in the second half.

"What that cutting edge was, why we didn't bring it to the table I don't know. Maybe we were thinking of the 30 points, getting ahead of ourselves. Maybe we forgot how good Sunderland could be."

Brown was unhappy with the sending off of Ricketts, for fouls on Malbranque and Phil Bardsley.

He added: "It's a ridiculous decision. The lad's got the ball. I've looked at it from two angles. The lad [Bardsley] has made a meal of it. Sam Ricketts has caught the ball cleanly. But that's life in the Premier League."

On another sour note for Hull, a missile appeared to be thrown at Bardsley soon after the Ricketts incident.