Jobe Bellingham curls in Sunderland’s winner over Norwich.Photograph: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC/Getty Images
It was the sort of high calibre, technically demanding, goal that Jude Bellingham would have treasured scoring for Real Madrid or England but, on a windy Wearside afternoon the executioner was his young brother, Jobe.
Aged just 19, Jobe Bellingham is proving a key component of Sunderland’s promotion push and his winner here kept Régis Le Bris’s bold, exciting, young side fourth and firmly in the hunt for promotion from the Championship.
Not that overcoming a mid-table Norwich side who had José Córdoba sent off moments before Bellingham’s goal was exactly straightforward in an always edgy game, punctuated by 10 yellow cards and all sorts of on-pitch feuds.
Le Bris’s family had flown in from France to spend the festive season in north East England, allowing his son and daughter to watch a live match at the Stadium of Light for the first time.
Sunderland had still to lose a second tier match here this season and, before kick off Bellingham, impressive in midfield throughout, had talked about “building a fortress on Wearside”.
As a capriciously gusty wind sent pieces of plastic blowing all over the pitch, Norwich initially threatened to blow that citadel down. Johannes Hoff Thorup’s side had arrived without a win in their previous three games but, following a couple of fine saves from Anthony Patterson in the home goal, Sunderland had no answer to a well choreographed visiting corner routine that concluded with Anis Ben Slimane connecting with a rebound and lashing the ball beyond Patterson from close range.
A week earlier Le Bris’s players had recovered from falling two goals behind at Swansea to secure a 3-2 victory and, with the match only 21 minutes old, there was, in theory, plenty of time for a similar recovery.
The equaliser arrived two minutes into the second half when Norwich could merely half clear Luke O’Nien’s free-kick, allowing Eliezer Mayenda to direct a lofted ball back in to the box for Dan Ballard to head, powerfully, past Angus Gunn.
Intelligent and incisive, Sunderland looked almost a different team to their first half incarnation but still very nearly come undone as Ante Crnac sent a shot swerving narrowly wide at the end of a Norwich counterattack.
At the other end, Wilson Isidor missed a wonderful chance after finding himself clean through but then the visiting defender Córdoba was sent off after collecting a second yellow card for a bad challenge on Chris Mepham.
The only surprise was that a red card had taken so long to materialise in an increasingly feisty encounter. One that rather made a mockery of the so-called Friendship Cup that has been contested, sporadically, between these sides to celebrate the extraordinary camaraderie established between Sunderland and Norwich fans as the latter won the 1985 League Cup final.
But way of confirming that Le Bris’s players were ascendant here, the fall out from the free kick that following Córdoba’s dismissal prefaced Bellingham cutting back onto this right foot and unleashing a beautifully calibrated, awkwardly angled, shot that flew into the far corner from a distinctly unpromising position.
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Although Patterson subsequently did extremely well to tip a shot from Norwich substitute Ashley Barnes on to a post, Sunderland had clearly heeded their manager’s pre-match message. “We must not be content with our progress and we cannot afford to to relax,” insisted Le Bris before kick-off. “Instead we must be relentless in the pursuit of our objectives.”
It is a mantra likely to be repeated on New Year’s Day when the Championship leaders, Sheffield United, visit the Stadium of Light.