Last time out Sunderland lost to Hull in the Carabao Cup. Sunderland host Aston Villa U21s in the group stages of the EFL Trophy on Tuesday evening. The Northern Stage qualifying Group A also includes Carlisle and Fleetwood Town. Manager Phil Parkinson has said that he will use this game to give his squad players some valuable game time and could also give an opportunity to some of his younger players. Phil Parkinson: “All the lads who didn't play today (Saturday) plus the youngsters will play in that match " "It's a good opportunity to have a look at a few other players and we are looking forward to that match" (Aston Villa) Dean Smith: “Blah blah” Prutton predicts: meh Match Appointments: Referee: CARL BOYESON Assistant Referees: David Avent and Geoffrey Liddle Fourth Official: Kevin Mulraine Team Line ups Sunderland: Matthews, Taylor, Feeney, Xhemajli, McLaughlan, Scowen, Leadbitter, Embleton, Neil, Gooch, Wyke Subs: Patterson, Hackett, Dunne, Dobson, Diamond, Grigg, Graham Injured: McGeady Aston Villa U21: Sinisalo, Bridge, Reven, Rowe, Walker, Brunt, Ramsey, Archer, Sea, Wright, Tait. Subs: tbc Injured: tbc Betting Odds: Home 14/5 Away 10/11 Draw 9/4 My two pence: This game should be used as a training game to give some of the youngsters a go and to get the first team squad players ready for Saturday’s big kick off. We certainly need to be more clinical in front of goal, we created lots of chances on Saturday but ultimately failed to score. I’m going for a 1-1 draw and we win the shoot-out this time. Ha’way the Lads Live stream £10 https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Season pass £140 https://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2020/september/2020-21-streaming-and-audio-passes
Got to solve the lack of goals already, don't mind about the result as long as we beat Fleetwood further along in this comp. We need to convert our chances and this game could give us that opportunity.
Yeah - I was thinking that maybe he should play Will Grigg from the start, then take him off when he completes his hattrick
As you say this game is a training exercise, personally I would say fitness rather than training under this regime. Even if O'Conner is right Dan Neil, Brandon Taylor and Jack Diamond will be ignored again as they have the disadvantage of coming through our academy.
Judging by those highlights Hull won every header floated into the penalty area, this could be just as big a worry in tight league games as our inability to hit the net up front, team selection is key here and Parky needs a brain transplant imo.
Quite the opposite to Saturday, might be some value staying in this tournament to try and get young lads game time and rotate a bit. I’d hope we are going to give Neil, Diamond, The new CB and Graham run outs, so be interesting for that alone.
was a tad perplexed when i noticed first two games were basically meaningless cup games, then saw the thoughts of using them as 'extra' pre-season games and decided they might not be a bad way to start...no points at stake and more competitive for the players. i honestly stopped giving a **** about a nice cup run when we dropped into div 3...hopefully we end with a fairly early exit and are able to put everything into getting points.
I want us to win every game or at least try, accepting failure is a bad habit, easy to accept, but very difficult to reverse.
