Sunderland suffered a third straight home defeat as Brighton benefitted from Yankuba Minteh’s scruffy second-half strike to win 1-0 and leapfrog their hosts to move into the top half of the Premier League.
Minteh stunned the Stadium of Light when he squeezed the ball past Sunderland goalkeeper Melker Ellborg at the near post. The winger, making his first start of 2026 in the absence of Kaoru Mitoma, was off balance and almost certainly aiming to cross.
Sunderland, who had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside 10 minutes earlier, dearly needed a response after their shock FA Cup exit to League One strugglers Port Vale but sent their supporters away disappointed.
Having reached mid-February without losing at the Stadium of Light, Regis Le Bris’ side have now been beaten in three consecutive games at home and head into next week’s Tyne-Wear with their heads down.
To make matters worse, Sunderland lost defender Dan Ballard to injury in the second half, raising question marks about his availability for Sunday’s trip to Newcastle.
Chris Rigg, the Sunderland midfielder, thought he had scored his first Premier League goal four minutes after the restart when he found the back of the net from Omar Alderete’s nod down. However, it was chalked off because the defender had strayed offside.
Brighton join Sunderland on 40 points but move above them into 10th thanks to their superior goal difference.
More to follow…
Story of the match in stats
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