Norwich City 1-0 Sunderland: Josh Sargent goal keeps Canaries in play-off race
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Josh Sargent joined Norwich from German club Werder Bremen in 2021
Josh Sargent scored his 11th goal of the season as Norwich City overcame Sunderland to stay firmly in contention for a Championship play-off place.
The USA international beat Anthony Patterson with a shot on the turn in the 81st minute as the Sunderland defence failed to deal with a loose, bouncing ball in the box.
It had looked like the Canaries would be frustrated by their north-east opponents in an often tepid encounter despite Gabriel Sara testing Patterson and then minutes later Abdoullah Ba hitting the bar at the other end.
Managerless Sunderland had won on their three previous league visits to Carrow Road but could not find an equaliser as their own chances of a top-six finish receded.
The Canaries, who are now unbeaten in six games and have won five in a row at home, remain seventh, just a single point below Hull City - who drew 0-0 at Preston North End - with Sunderland still in 10th place.
Norwich boss David Wagner recalled experienced striker Ashley Barnes in place of injured Marcelino Nunez, the only change to the side that started the 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers, while caretaker boss Mike Dodds gave 20-year-old Romaine Mundle only his second start for the visitors.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and former shadow chancellor Ed Balls were in the crowd at Carrow Road
It was tough for either side to settle into a rhythm in blustery, wet conditions at the start, but Sargent had a goalbound shot deflected wide, while Mundle headed off target at the other end from Trai Hume's cross.
Patterson produced a brilliant tip-over from Borja Sainz's shot after a clearance fell to the Norwich forward, but the referee had already blown for a foul in the box.
Norwich made the livelier start to the second half as full-back Jack Stacey struck the woodwork with a chipped cross from the right before Sara cut inside his marker and forced Patterson to push his left-foot effort aside.
Ba gave the home fans a scare before Sargent put Norwich in the lead with a composed finish and although Sunderland pushed hard in the closing minutes, home goalkeeper Angus Gunn dealt capably with two headers from substitute Nazariy Rusyn.
A home game against leaders Leicester City on Tuesday is next for the Wearsiders, while Norwich travel north to take on Middlesbrough the following evening.
Norwich head coach David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:
"It was hard fought, but from my point of view there was not a shadow of a doubt that it was a deserved result. We had the better chances.
"The players did fantastic because they stayed calm - you can easily lose your head if you don't score early.
"We had some very good opportunities when we should have done better but luckily we had Josh Sargent, who has done his job.
"The team fought for a clean sheet at the right moments as well so I am very proud about what the players have done in terms of the commitment, attitude and fighting spirit."
Sunderland interim boss Mike Dodds told BBC Radio Newcastle:
"If I'm being brutally honest, there's still a lot of things we need to be better with, but we've got some really good opposition coming up this week so we can't dwell on it too much.
"The result is the most important thing, so we can spin positives and we can spin negatives, but when you lose a game in the manner we lost, it's a really tough one to take.
"We got into some good areas of the pitch and worked our shape really well, but when we got into those areas I felt we looked a bit tense, a bit nervous, for whatever reason.
"This is a Norwich team that are in a good spot, they've scored a lot of goals at home and I felt we completely nullified that, but it doesn't really matter as we lost the game."