Sunderland provided a huge response following their midweek stalemate with Plymouth Argyle by taking an impressive 5-1 victory from Cambridge United yesterday.

Alex Neil and his team are now on a 12-game unbeaten run, with the Scottish manager only losing once since he arrived at the club in February, and they now find themselves fourth in the League One table albeit only one point safe in the play-off position.

The Black Cats put in a phenomenal attacking performance that was boosted when Cambridge went down to ten men in the 12th minute of the game, with Lloyd Jones getting red-carded awarding their hosts a penalty which Ross Stewart scored to make it 1-0 a minute later.

Sunderland were dominant throughout the game holding 75% possession, making ten more shots on target and over 400 more accurate passes than their opponents on Saturday afternoon.

Elliot Embleton, Danny Batth and Nathan Broadhead all joined Stewart in getting on the scoresheet delivering five goals in total, and Embleton, in particular, was an absolute force in the attacking threat his team imposed on Cambridge and offered an unrivalled presence.

The 23-year-old who was labelled "complex" by former manager Lee Johnson, made an impressive 141 touches, 113 accurate passes, four key passes and was successful in the majority of his long balls and crosses (12/21).

Embleton has been integral in Sunderland's play-off charge as of late and has delivered in the moments when it has been needed most, grabbing his opportunities to impress his new manager following a lack of game-time since the Scotsman took over at the Stadium of Light.

Neil had been playing the midfielder off the bench, but he has now finally integrated him back into the starting eleven over the last two games following an assist to the last-minute winning goal against Gillingham and scoring the winner against Oxford in the final moments in the following game, with his contribution earning the Black Cats six points in just 27 minutes of play.

The fight for a play-off place isn't over with the North-East club safe by just a point with one game in hand over their competitors inside the top six, and with no room for error in the last two games, Sunderland must continue their unbeaten form to boost their chances of potential promotion.

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