Wilson Isidor off bench to seal dramatic Sunderland comeback over Brentford

It is no secret that Régis Le Bris hopes to sign another striker before the transfer window music stops on Monday night but maybe, just maybe, Wilson Isidor gave Sunderland’s manager pause for thought in stoppage time.

Isidor stepped off the bench to score his second goal in three Premier League appearances as Le Bris’s team made it two wins from three. With this degree of defensive organisation allied to Enzo Le Fée’s creative flair they could yet prove more than capable of making a successful adaptation to their new top tier habitat.

Like Le Bris, Brentford’s manager, Keith Andrews, is clearly no mug when it comes to setting up a team, he just lacked a striker to fill the huge gap vacated by the absent Yoane Wissa.

Andrews does at least possess Dango Ouattara though. Le Bris was probably not too surprised when Ouattara controlled a lovely first-half reverse pass from Nathan Collins before embarking on a run that would sweep him between the home central defensive partnership of Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete. Indeed Sunderland’s manager looked rather resigned when Brentford’s club record £42.5m summer signing from Bournemouth proceeded to roll a wonderfully audacious shot beyond a deceived Robin Roefs.

Le Bris had seen it all before; after all he was the coach who spent countless hours honing Ouattara’s game at Lorient. All that work ultimately helped earn the Burkina Faso winger a £20m transfer to Bournemouth two years ago and now he was relishing a chance to remind his old mentor just how good he is.

No matter that, in offering conclusive proof that Ouattara had been fractionally offside, VAR came to Sunderland’s rescue, Le Bris’s players knew their promising start had been literally inches away from being wiped out.

View image in fullscreen Enzo Le Fée scores from the penalty spot. Photograph: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC/Getty Images

In showing off some impressive passing and movement, not to mention fluid positional interchanging, the home side frequently looked assured but, despite some nice touches from Le Fée – another graduate of the French football factory otherwise known as Lorient – they created relatively little of menace.

That was partly down to Jordan Henderson’s presence at the base of Brentford’s midfield. On his return to the club where he began his career and was once very much the local hero, Henderson played well, slowing things down when necessary and contributing the odd high-calibre through pass.

Le Bris must have been suitably relieved that another of his former Lorient proteges was not around to connect with those deliveries. Andrews had left Wissa behind in London as the DR Congo striker continued to push for a longed-for move to Newcastle.

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Without Wissa this increasingly became a case of two evidently smartly drilled sides cancelling each other out. If that was down largely to the tactical choreography of Le Bris and Andrews it also had quite a bit to do with the tempo-controlling presence of Henderson and Granit Xhaka.

Sunderland explored the possibility of bringing Henderson back to the Stadium of Light from Ajax this summer but ended up recruiting Xhaka from Bayer Leverkusen to perform a similar leadership role.

Yet as much as the former Arsenal midfielder played a key part in containing Brentford, Andrews’ team would have taken the lead had Sunderland’s impressive goalkeeper Roefs not saved Kevin Schade’s second-half penalty awarded after Reinildo hauled Collins down with the ball some distance away.

Schade looked mortified after aiming his kick far too close to Roefs and relieved when Habib Diarra proved unequal to a highly inviting Le Fée cross that begged to be volleyed past Caoimhín Kelleher.

A reminder that chances need to be taken was swiftly issued by Brentford. When Igor Thiago stretched to meet Frank Onyeka’s cross, even Roefs had no answer to the headed finish and Sunderland were behind.

Onyeka had swiftly made his mark after replacing Henderson, who departed to a standing ovation from his former public.

An even louder cheer greeted the penalty Le Fée directed cleanly into the bottom right-hand corner, leaving Kelleher no chance of a save after Rico Henry had pulled Diarra down.

All that remained was for Xhaka to whip in a 96th-minute cross that Isidor delighted in polishing off with a header Kelleher touched but could not hold.

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