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VIDEO: Sunderland players hit by smoke bombs from own fans celebrating goal

A number of Sunderland players were hit by smoke bombs from their own fans when celebrating of their goals in the win at Wigan Athletic.

Ross Stewart scored two penalties as the Black Cats got their League One promotion push back on track with an much needed victory over fellow promotion contenders Wigan.

However, whilst the Sunderland fans were pleased at seeing their side pick up an important win, two of their players were struck by a smoke bomb, one player holding his head and the other left limping as can be seen in the video below.

The visitors were in front after just a minute, when Alex Pritchard’s free-kick from the right wing was headed home by an unmarked Bailey Wright.

Stewart doubled their lead seven minutes prior to the break from the penalty spot, after the ex-Ross County striker had been tripped just inside the box by Curtis Tilt.

Stewart and Pritchard had chances to make it 3-0 as the visitors – looking to do the double over the Latics following their 2-1 opening-day win at the Stadium of Light.

Wigan briefly threatened when Callum Lang went clean through, however would have left home fans disappointed after hitting his effort straight at goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.

Stewart added his second penalty of the game with four minutes remaining, after Tendayi Darikwa was penalised for handball.

Wigan are now only clear of third-placed MK Dons on goal difference though have played three games fewer.

Sunderland go up to 5th with 59 points from 35 games played and are seven points behind second place Wigan.

Sunderland manager Alex Neil said after the game: “There have always been a lot of challenges since day one but it’s really nice when we come away from home against a good team, win 3-0, keep a clean sheet, and most importantly send the fans home happy – I thought they were terrific throughout the game, they backed us throughout the match and it was a nice feeling to reward them with a win, because we hadn’t done that since I’ve been here.

“We employed a different strategy today because we knew they would want to turn the ball and they are really effective getting down the sides, so we needed to stop crosses coming into the box which we did in the main.

“We knew we would always be a threat on the counter-attack and in transition, and we were.

“I’m really pleased. Everything we spoke about in the week, the lads carried out to a tee really, and I thought we thoroughly deserved our win.

“The players have done their jobs to a really high level and that’s why we won the game, however the next game will be different again and it will put different demands on us.

“I’m certainly not naive enough to think that we can go out and play that way every week because different opponents pose different problems, but I thought we got the gameplan spot on today and the lads carried it out very well.

“Football is a simple game – we complicate it sometimes by talking a lot of cr*p.

“The fact is that we need to make sure we do the simple things well, which we did today – we competed, we won our headers, we picked up second balls, we had moments of quality at the top end of the pitch – and if you do that really well, and if you’ve got quality within your group which we have, then it comes to the fore.

“Today is a really good platform for us to have a bit of belief and confidence going into the remaining games.

“I said to the players before the game that we need to prove to ourselves, and to prove to everybody else, that we can stand up to these types of physical challenges.

“Even at half-time, the discussion was ‘now you’ve done it for 45 minutes, have you got the steel to see it through?’

“I think players like challenges like that.”

“It’s not been easy, and even today we lost two centre-backs before the game,” said Neil on Xhemajli played in the absence of Callum Doyle, who was rested, and Danny Batth who missed out due to injury.

“Arby hasn’t played in a long, long, time, so I was delighted for him that he got an opportunity and he put in a really solid performance.

“He was really, really hungry to play, but like anyone else who hasn’t been playing he tired and he went down towards the latter part of the game and that’s always the concern.

“I think he should be OK, but it’s just a case of trying to get people up to speed.

“What I would say is that because we didn’t deploy a man-for-man system like we have done in one or two of the other games, that back line didn’t get dragged about.

“We were really solid, played narrow, played tight, and the wide players and the forwards did the bulk of the running in the game, so we demanded a lot of their legs today.

“We just had one moment where their guy got slipped in and Patto [goalkeeper Anthony Patterson] made a really good save and that moment changed the dynamic of the game.

“In recent weeks those moments have damaged us, but today it didn’t.”

Leam Richardson expressed his disappointment after his side fell to a 3-0 home defeat against Sunderland at the DW Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a frustrating day from the first minute,” he said.

“To concede from the first ball into your box is disappointing because it’s not the type of goal that we normally concede, but credit to Sunderland because they’ve come to get a result and they got it.

“I’ve got to be respectful to the players and the staff in that we haven’t lost here (at the DW Stadium) since October. The good thing about football is that we’re able to make it right over the next couple of days and we’ve got another game on Tuesday to do that.

“From Tuesday’s win at Wycombe, we didn’t get too high and now from today, we won’t get too low. What we will do is learn quickly and keep growing as a team.

“It’s the same message from right at the start of the season. We want to be competitive in every game and today was probably the first time I felt we weren’t as competitive for the 90 minutes, but it wouldn’t be for the lack of trying.”

Social media users reacted on the video which shows Sunderland players hit by smoke bombs from their own fans celebrating a goal…

@mackeminmokum: As a Sunderland fan, this is unacceptable, one was also thrown into the Wigan fans apparently. 99% of fans apologize for this, our away support is tremendous, it’s a mindless minority that ruin it for everyone.

@ian_safc_1974: Little bell was sitting in front of me. He Thought he was brilliant. Hopefully he gets a knock on his door very soon

@WrightingWayne: Aren’t these the people who called @Pompey fans out a couple of years back , for a flare ‘incident’ @pn_neil_allen @PompeyNewsNow @PompeyHistory @portsmouthnews

@Sunderlandoful: Which clown hit Pritchard and Winchester with a flair? Give your heads a shake!!!!

@AdamSmitz33: Mad how when it’s thrown from your own fans it doesn’t make you fall to the floor.

@MrIanB_7: Whoever threw it >> Wait till the players move away from us before throwing a fucking flare ffs … other than that Gerrinnnnnnnn!!!! 🔴⚪️

@LewissBaxterr15: Did i just witness Winchester being hit with a pyro 🤣

@SpeakSAFC: Some reeet idiots around like.

@CovHarry: Embarrassment of a club

@mike_whittle: Pack it in with the flares like… Imagine it explode and took a players foot off?! Idiotic

@elijahbasden05: Whoever threw this is an idiot btw what good can come off hurling a flare down amongst your own players

@SteveT_10: Absolute arseholes throwing shit like that as the players were celebrating.

@MKA97FTM: Outing myself as anti-fun here but people who bring flares to football games are the biggest of whoppers

@SevenHillsBlade: Never been renowned as the brightest bunch.

@Lee18_92Johnson: Whey lad 😂🤣

@PaulBaxterNUFC: Meanwhile in league 1. (3rd tier of English football)

@Tony_Deadly: What clever shit throws a flare in the direction of the players fucking idiot

@PFCkx: Remember when we threw a pyro in the sunderland end and they had people online comparing it to the yugoslav wars😂😂😂 freaks

@Stezza_Dozza: Thick as mince.

@ComeOnBoro_MB: Thick Mackems….

@shanehagan24: Fuck sake 😅

@lblackburn_18: HAHAHAHA DAFT MACKEM TWATS

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