Ipswich 2-1 Sunderland: Jack Clarke nets dramatic late winner against his former club as Gary O'Neil starts tenure with victory

22.08.2026, 19:52 skysports.com

Former Sunderland player Jack Clarke struck a 90th-minute winner for Ipswich Town on their return to the Premier League in a 2-1 win over the Black Cats.

Under new head coach Gary O'Neil, the newly-promoted team named seven new signings in their starting XI and one of them, Emersonn, opened the scoring after an error by Luke O'Nien.

Ex-Brighton forward Julio Enciso had impressed during a six-month loan at Town last year and punished O'Nien's pass by squaring for his striker to slide home.

Nilson Angulo struck Sunderland level with a stunning free-kick just before the break but the European qualifiers couldn't kick on after the break.

An Abdul Fatawu cross in the 50th minute was fractionally too high for former Celtic attacker Daizen Maeda before a second fine delivery into the area was flicked inches wide by Enciso.

Marcelino Nunez made a timely block to thwart Brobbey before Enciso produced another mazy run but Emersonn could not find Maeda from the resulting cross.

With the game fizzling out, it was Clarke who sprang from the bench to punish another poor Sunderland giveaway - this time from Omar Alderete. It was a classy finish from the winger, who signed from the north-east club in 2024 for £15 million.

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Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris said:

"The result is a bit cruel because we dominated the ball but dominating possession doesn't mean you win the game.

"They were well organised and ready to exploit our turnovers. Now it is about us, we have to show more composure.

"Our goal was a nice goal, happy for him [Angulo] but it is still a defeat. We will try to analyse quickly this defeat to go forward."

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