TEENAGE KICKS HELP BLACK CATS EARN THE DERBY SPOILS

Rigg's audacious backheel seals glory

REGIS Le Bris hailed teenager Chris Rigg after seeing him fire Sunderland to derby victory over Boro.

The 17-year-old’s audacious backheeled finish sealed a narrow win for Le Bris’ young team at the Stadium of Light and further enhanced his blossoming reputation in the hot seat.

Asked if it was easy to forget how young Rigg is, the Sunderland boss said: “I don’t think that age is a problem. You can have a high level of maturity at 17 and you can have a low level of maturity at 30, so it depends on the personality of the player.

“Rigg is a good symbol of what we want to create and what we want to build as a team and as a club. He wants to improve, he still wants to understand the game. If we can share all these ideas, at the end, we feel the energy as a group, as a unit, as a team even against a strong opponent.”

Rigg’s decisive intervention capped a solid response to the Black Cats’ first defeat of the season at Plymouth last weekend.