Regis Le Bris was full of praise for his Sunderland players following their hard-fought 1-0 victory on the road against Derby County and declared, “it was a big and important win for us.”

Eliezer Mayenda scored the game’s only goal – his fourth of the season – in the 28th minute, finishing smartly at the near post after excellent work from Jobe Bellingham. It took the Black Cats to within two points of the automatic promotion places although with Burnley and Leeds United scheduled to play on Wednesday night, that situation may have changed.

But the Wearsiders were all smiles at Pride Park on Tuesday night as Mayenda’s strike proved to be the winner. In the second half Wilson Isidor thought he’d doubled the lead only for it to be disallowed – but Le Bris’ side dug in to claim a vital three points.

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Mayenda was the only change to the team, replacing Patrick Roberts in the starting XI. And Isidor came close to doubling the lead with what would have been an incredible goal after racing the entire length of the pitch only to be denied by a last-ditch tackle.

Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson made some big saves too as the Black Cats took the three points.

After seeing his team extend their impressive run to just one defeat in their last 10 league games, Le Bris said: “It was a big and important win for us. It was another tough game against a different style of play. We started the game well, we created chances but unfortunately, we only scored once. So it’s always like that if you are away especially and if you’re away from home and you only score once then you know the opponent will believe that it is possible to change the game.

“It wasn’t easy to manage their long balls especially with their very wide back three. It was difficult to press. With the balls around our box many situations could happen and it was like that until the end.”

On Mayenda he continued: “Eli improves the level of his game each week. We have many young players and they need experiences and they need minutes to grow – Eli is one of them. He is showing a very good mindset and he is always connected with his team-mates. With that behaviour we want to support him – it's very important for him his development.”

Patterson made some crucial saves and Le Bris added: “Yes he is very important for us as well. We need good forwards to finish our actions. And we need to have a good goalkeeper to stop the opportunities for our opponents and he did that again.”