'Sure he wishes' - Ex-Sunderland star on Leeds United player and 'deserved' Whites outcome

Third-placed Leeds saw their seven-game unbeaten run brought to an end in Tuesday night’s Championship clash at the Stadium of Light where Jobe Bellingham bagged the only goal of the game 12 minutes from time. Despite the Whites having more possession and more shots both on target and off target, Phillips felt Sunderland’s defending and general approach under interim boss Mike Dodds warranted a victory that backed up Saturday’s 2-1 win at home to West Brom.

Phillips, though, felt that the game could have changed completely had Whites winger Crysencio Summerville gone to ground when challenged by Jack Clarke as he raced through on goal midway through the second half. Clarke grabbed at Summerville as he raced away on the counter but Summerville stayed on his feet despite losing momentum only to see his shot upon entering the Black Cats box saved by keeper Anthony Patterson.

Speaking post match on Sky Sports, Phillips admitted a likely red card for Clarke had Summerville gone to ground could have led to a different conclusion as he considered two sides to the Dutch winger opting to stay on his feet.

Pressed on whether a sending off changes the game completely, Phillips admitted: “Of course it does. He (Summerville) is young, he showed maybe a bit of naivety but you have to give him credit for staying up. He wants to score goals, he has been amongst the goals and he sees that as an opportunity.

"When he watches it back, I am pretty sure he wishes he had gone down. I am glad he didn't. But give credit to Jack Clarke, he has done enough to put him off and then the defender had recovered and luckily the shot went into the keeper's hands."

Assessing the fact that Leeds had more possession and shots, Phillips reasoned: “Just look at the score. It doesn’t matter does it. I think when we analyse it and you look and you watch the game, Sunderland deserved to win - to follow Saturday’s performance up with another one with 40,000 fans at the stadium.

"We weren’t too sure what to expect. We knew how good Leeds were but they had to get it bang on and Mike Dodds has made a few tactical changes as he called it but the players that he has brought in have not let him down. Yes, you have to take your chances and Sunderland did that but you have to defend against quality teams. They were bang on defending, they took their chance and they deserved to win the game so credit to them.”