FORMER ST PATRICK’S Athletic defender Luke McNally was Stoke City’s hero with the winner against Sunderland, giving the struggling Potters their first home win since August.
Stoke took an early lead when the returning Ryan Mmaee opened his account following a summer switch from Ferencvaros.
The hosts’ celebrations were cut short when Jack Clarke levelled soon after with his eighth league goal of the season, climbing to the top of the Championship scoring charts in the process.
But McNally’s header in the 47th minute proved to be the decisive moment in a 2-1 win for the hosts.
Daniel Johnson’s deep corner was nodded home by the Meath native, who is on loan from Burnley, for his first Potters goal — and his first goal in general since March 2022.
Meanwhile, at Carrow Road, Shane Duffy ended up on both sides of the scoresheet as Leeds United came from behind to beat Norwich City 3-2.
The Canaries went in front after just four minutes when the first corner of the game from Gabriel Sara was headed in at the near post by Duffy, his first goal for the club owing much to some poor marking from the visitors.
Sara doubled Norwich’s advantage two minutes before the break but Leeds were given a lifeline by a slice of good fortune — at Duffy’s expense — on 63 minutes.
Dan James did well to get to the byline after a swift counter-attack and his cross evaded George Long before hitting the back-tracking Duffy and trickling over the line.
Leeds kept pushing and got a deserved equaliser on 77 minutes when Norwich left Summerville unmarked on the edge of the box at a corner and were punished as the Dutchman fired home in impressive fashion, his looping shot going in off the far post.
Leeds completed a dramatic turnaround as Summerville scored his second eight minutes later after Norwich had been caught short at the back when pushing forward.
At the MKM Stadium, Will Smallbone’s opening goal helped Southampton to a dramatic 2-1 win over Hull City.
Smallbone scored his second of the season on 20 minutes when Kyle Walker-Peters won his duel with Jaden Philogene before cutting back to the unmarked Ireland midfielder, who guided the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
Hull had been the better side until Smallbone scored and deservedly equalised five minutes later through Liam Delap, but Southampton nicked all three points at the death as their late pressure allowed substitute Ryan Fraser the chance to sweep home the winner with virtually the last kick of the game.
In League One, Conor Hourihane scored the game’s only goal — but at the wrong end of the pitch — as Derby County lost 1-0 at Shrewsbury Town.
– Updated 6.31pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Luke McNally is from County Kildare; he is from County Meath.
