Romaine Mundle made sure Sunderland continued their perfect start to the Sky Bet Championship season by grabbing the third in a 3-1 win over Portsmouth.
The Black Cats have a 100 per cent record and, despite conceding for the first time in almost seven hours in stoppage time, they purred to victory on the south coast.
Zak Swanson’s calamitous own goal, Alan Browne’s close-range effort and Mundle’s fine end to a counter attack continued Sunderland’s best start to a season for 99 years – where they also began with a quartet of victories.
Pompey had more of the ball in the early stages but only had a single first-half shot on target to shout about – a tame header from Connor Ogilvie in the 12th minute.
The visitors grew but overhit crosses and a horribly sliced effort from Patrick Roberts were all they could muster until the 31st minute, when the only moment of quality of the first half arrived.
Trai Hume brilliantly found space down the right side of the box and pulled it back to Eliezer Mayenda in the centre. His shot was kept out by Will Norris before a catastrophe between Jordan Williams and Swanson broke the deadlock.
Makeshift centre-back Williams attempted to hack the ball clear but only kicked into Swanson’s midriff two yards away, with both helpless to stop the ball crossing the line.
After the break, the Black Cats tore away with just their second victory at Fratton Park in their last 10 trips to the south coast.
There was a scrappiness to the second as Roberts got in down the right. The winger pulled back to Mayenda, whose first touch was poor but his second poked slowly towards the line, which Browne made sure it crossed.
If Mayenda’s influence was sketchy with the second goal, he played a much more assured role in the third as he led a counter down the middle.
He played a perfectly weighted pass to his left to Mundle, who collected, settled and stroked home his second goal of the campaign to send the 2,081 away fans wild.
Sunderland’s 389-minute run without conceding this season was finally ended when Swanson’s nod across goal was needlessly headed into his own goal by Luke O’Nien.
It could mot prevent John Mousinho from tasting defeat for just the 11th time as Portsmouth boss, and first of the league season after three straight draws.
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