Lee Johnson delivered this verdict on Sunderland's win over Portsmouth and 'brilliant' Danny Batth

Sunderland had to again battle a poor Stadium of Light pitch, and a sluggish start, to secure three crucial points against Danny Cowley's side.

Elliot Embleton's goal five minutes before half time proved to be the difference, with the hosts largely comfortable in defending their lead through the second half.

“It was a very hard-earned win," Johnson said.

"You can see the pitch is not really conducive to play tika-taka football, and that’s the reasoning for bringing in the likes of Danny Batth.

"I thought we were extremely solid today. If you look at how many saves Hoff has had to make, I can’t remember one of note, and we’ve had two or three really good chances.

“It definitely wasn’t a classic, but it was well fought. After the first 25 minutes, when I thought they were the better side, a Corry Evans tackle got us going and we pressed and hustled better. We had two or three chances where we caught them on the ball.

"The second half becomes a balance between trying to attack and wanting to be solid," he added.

"Look at how many players we've got out from the team today.

"So we need to win all types of games and it's something that I recognised early in the season and that I don't think we addressed early enough, and the signing of Danny certainly does that, giving us that dominant first-ball winner.

"I thought Danny was brilliant.

"He's got that physicality and takes the emphasis off Flanno in that regard.

"In possession he was good and played a couple of good long balls.

"Callum Doyle was outstanding and the whole back five was solid. We understand it wasn't a classic but the most important thing was the three points.

"You saw Danny can play as well, some good diagonals and crisp passing.

"There's not much to criticise his performance, and considering he hasn't been an absolute regular at Stoke, it shows his professionalism to churn out that 90 minutes."

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