Daniel Ballard was named man of the match as Sunderland won 2-1 at Coventry City in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final at the weekend.
The 25-year-old, who had not started a game for the Black Cats since the end of February due to a hamstring injury, was a colossus at the heart of the defence as the visitors took a narrow advantage into the second leg at the Stadium of Light.
“To be honest I didn’t expect to be starting,” Ballard told Chronicle Live. “I've been out for a long time. It’s been 10 weeks since I last started a game, so I put in a lot of hard work in that time and the goal was to be fit and available for these games.
“But obviously knowing in the back of my mind I probably wasn’t going to play. So to get the gaffer’s trust and he's put me in, you know, it was a real confidence booster."
“I was nervous going into this game,” added Ballard, who also had international colleague Trai Hume in the Sunderland side alongside him. “I had not started for a while, so I didn't know how the body would hold up. So it was a tough game, but I really enjoyed it.”
The second leg is due to be staged tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at the Stadium of Light, with the winners facing either Sheffield United or Bristol City in the play-off final at Wembley later this month.
Meanwhile, Ethan Galbraith and Jamie Donley were in League One play-off action as Leyton Orient drew 2-2 at home with Stockport County at the Gaughan Group Stadium.
The Londoners will travel to Edgeley Park for the second leg of the semi-final on Wednesday evening. The winners of that one will play either Charlton or Wycombe in the final.
On the goalscoring front, Lee Bonis took his tally for the season to 12 after finding the net in ADO Den Haag’s 7-2 demolition of Venlo in the Eerste Divisie in the Netherlands.
Former Cliftonville striker Ben Wilson scored his 17th of the campaign as Airdrieonians progressed to the Scottish Championship play-off final against Cove Rangers on Wednesday following a 3-1 win over Stenhousemuir.
In the Premier League Conor Bradley was given the nod over the departing Trent Alexander-Arnold for his 12th start of the season as Liverpool drew 2-2 at home with Arsenal, while Justin Devenny was again used as a substitute as Crystal Palace won 2-0 at Spurs.
Finally, ex-Glentoran striker Kerry Beattie took her goal tally since joining Aberdeen on loan in January to eight after hitting a brace in the 6-0 SWPL win at Motherwell on Sunday.
