First things first, Sunderland won. And that's what matters. They are at the stage where they simply have to win games by hook or by crook if they are to secure a play-off place and with it a chance of promotion, so in that respect their victory against Gillingham was job done.
But with 94 minutes on the clock at the Stadium of Light it looked like they were heading for another goalless draw, another two points dropped, and another disappointing result that would inflict a damaging blow to their play-off hopes. The game was following the template set at Charlton and Lincoln last month, where Sunderland make all the running, deserve to win, but come up short in front of goal and end up with nothing more than a point for their efforts.
Against a Gillingham side content to sit deep for long periods with ten men behind the ball, Sunderland were afforded Manchester City-like levels of possession - 80 percent, since you ask - but lacked anything even resembling the cutting edge that allows the Premier League leaders to convert that dominance into goals. In the first half, Luke O'Nien headed against the crossbar and Patrick Roberts brought a good save out of Aaron Chapman, while in the second Corry Evans was unable to finish a good chance from a set piece, the captain also put a shot over the bar from the edge of the box following a rapid counter-attack, and in injury-time Ross Stewart was denied by a brilliant block from Jack Tucker.
It was not that Sunderland had played poorly, far from it, but they had just not done enough against a Gillingham side that was still part of the relegation mix. There was a lack of urgency, and they did not seem capable of upping the tempo and finding a way through Gillingham's back line.
The crowd of more than 31,000 had showed immense patience, but had the final whistle sounded on a goalless draw there would have been an outpouring of entirely justified frustration. Thankfully, it did not come to that.
In the fifth of six scheduled minutes of added time, substitute Nathan Broadhead marked his comeback from injury with what could turn out to be one of the most important goals of Sunderland's season. Fellow sub Elliot Embleton provided the cross, Broadhead got above Tucker, and the on-loan Everton man placed his header back across the keeper into the far corner.
The pressure that had built up over the preceding 94 minutes dissipated in an instant, and Broadhead raced to the North-West corner to celebrate. 'A kick in the nuts' was how Gills boss Neil Harris described the late goal afterwards.
As for Alex Neil, he admitted 'it probably took about ten years off my life, but we got there in the end'. The win lifted Sunderland to sixth and back into the play-off places.
It extended their unbeaten run to seven games, and also saw them keep their fifth clean sheet in six outings as they denied the visitors so much as a single shot on target. On a weekend when Ipswich's home defeat against Cambridge may well have ended the Tractor Boys' realistic hopes of making the play-offs, Sunderland are still in there fighting.
With MK Dons now looking like certainties for a top six finish, it leaves the Black Cats as one of five teams - the others being Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Oxford, and Wycombe - competing for the other three play-off positions. Against Gillingham, they eventually found a way; in the play-off battle, they must do the same.
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