Gary O’Neil salutes Ipswich fans after victory over Sunderland
Ipswich claimed only a second Premier League home win in 24 years.
Gary O’Neil paid tribute to the Ipswich fans and the whole club after they started the new Premier League campaign with a dramatic late win over Sunderland.
A new era at Portman Road got under way with O’Neil in the dugout for a competitive fixture for the first time since he replaced long-serving boss Kieran McKenna in June.
The spoils looked set to be shared after Nilson Angulo’s superb 39th-minute free kick for the Black Cats cancelled out Emersonn’s opener after 24 minutes following excellent play by Julio Enciso, but substitute Jack Clarke had other ideas and curled home on the stroke of full-time to earn Ipswich only a second home Premier League win in 24 years.
“Pleased, I thought we played pretty well and the Premier League is tough. As you saw, it takes everyone giving everything to get us over the line and I thought we deserved to win on the balance of it,” O’Neil said.
“That was tough and that is just one (win). We need a good few more than one so the focus will switch to the next one really quickly. The good thing for the players is they know they can compete at the level.
“We were competitive today in all phases, but they also know it took everything from everyone – the subs coming on in the 60th minute, then 75th minute and everyone pushing.
“It took all the staff and the work they have put in over the last seven weeks, like getting Abdul Fatawu fit in 10 days when he probably should have been 14.
“All of that plays its part in winning and the fans. If that stadium is empty and we are playing behind closed doors, I am convinced we don’t win that.
“No one is getting carried away because we know how hard that was and how hard it is, so we will be straight back to work.”
Regis Le Bris masterminded a dream season back in the Premier League for Sunderland during the 2025-26 campaign, but lambasted “mistakes” in this opening-day loss.
Luke O’Nien was at fault for Ipswich’s opener with a careless pass before his replacement Omar Alderete produced a similarly wayward ball forward, which Sasa Lukic passed into Clarke and he curled home with aplomb.
Sunderland finished seventh last season to qualify for the Europa League, but have only made two summer additions.
Le Bris said: “Disappointed first of all because for the opening day we wanted a good result. I think overall, the performance was not so bad.
“We tried to create chances and (it’s) our mistakes – we conceded two transitions and two goals, so it’s a shame.
“It is always difficult to break a well-organised block and at the minute we are not clinical enough to create chances to score goals and they enjoyed to use those opportunities (against us).
“The message is still the same. It is clear those two mistakes were important in the outcome of the game.”