Sinclair’s sweetly hit shot in the 35th minute curled round Kelvin Davis’ left hand to put City two goals up, Darius Vassell having nudged the ball home after nine minutes.
Aside from the two goals though, City were on the back foot and struggled to control the game, and had Sunderland’s finishing been better the result would have been very different, as Trevor admitted after the game.
“If their finishing had been as good as ours, we could have been in a bit of trouble,” he confessed.
“Tonight I don’t think we clicked too well, obviously the finishing wasn’t too bad and it got us the two goals, but all in all our general play was under par. It’s probably a good sign that the lads are disappointed although we have won the game.”
Sinclair’s 2004/05 season was wrecked after he sustained ligament damage last October, so his goal, his first for nearly a year, came as huge relief to him.
“I was glad to get on the score-sheet, I’ve not scored in a long time. I thought Coley was going to shoot first time, but he tried to take a touch to wrong-foot the defender. It dropped back to me, and I thought I’d take a swing at it, and their keeper was possibly a bit unsighted.”
Trevor, along with the rest of the squad, will be looking to improve things in training as they prepare for Saturday’s clash with Portsmouth. But for now he is satisfied enough to win using the phrase as coined by Andre Agassi’s coach Brad Gilbert while seeking that overall improvement.
“I set my standards against Birmingham on Saturday, and I probably did not quite live up to them so I’m disappointed. I’m glad to get the goal, glad to get the three points, that’s the main thing, but it was a case of winning ugly tonight.”
