IRELAND INTERNATIONALS ALAN Browne and Jayson Molumby both bagged goals in the Championship today, to ensure Sunderland and West Brom occupy the top two spots in the table.
The midfield pair both netted in the respective victories for their teams, warming up for Ireland’s game against England next Saturday at the Aviva Stadium.
Sunderland continued their perfect start to the 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, Browne’s close-range effort and Romaine 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.
Browne netted in the 51st minute to put Sunderland ahead 2-0 after that own goal in the 31st minute got them off the mark. There was a scrappiness to the goal as Patrick Roberts got in down the right. The winger pulled back to Eliezer Mayenda, whose first touch was poor but his second poked slowly towards the line, which Browne made sure it crossed.
Mundle’s 56th minute effort put Sunderland up 3-0, before a Luke O’Nien own goal in second-half injury-time proved a consolation effort for Portsmouth.
West Brom climbed into the Championship’s top two after continuing their unbeaten start to the season with a 1-0 win against Swansea at The Hawthorns.
Jayson Molumby’s first goal for 16 months gave Albion a deserved lead in the first minute of time added on at the end of the first half.
Carlos Corberan’s side dominated that first period and could easily have been four goals to the good.
But it was a different story after the break as Swansea created several chances, though Albion carved out two more scoring opportunities.
Albion paraded the latest two of their 11 summer signings, Mikey Johnston and Mason Holgate, before kick-off.
Albion finally got the goal they deserved through Molumby, just before half-time. The Republic of Ireland international slid his shot into the bottom corner of the net after two lovely one-twos with Maja carved through Swansea’s defence.
It was Molumby’s first goal since April 2023 when his brace helped Albion win 2-1 at Stoke.
