Sunderland travel to Fratton Park to face Portsmouth in the SkyBet League One.
Last time out Sunderland beat Rochdale and Portsmouth lost at Northampton.
Sunderland continued to improve their chances of automatic promotion with another hard fought win at the Stadium of Light. Goals from Dion Sanderson and Charlie Wyke mean that the Black Cats are 5 points off top spot with 2 games in hand of leaders Hull City.
Lee Johnson could be without Carl Winchester but is hopeful that Lynden Gooch will recover from a calf strain. Grant Leadbitter was back training last week despite the dislocated shoulder that he suffered at Crewe.
The Black Cats lost 3-1 at home to Portsmouth earlier in the season, but the south coast club are on a bad run of form having lost 4 of their last 6 games, collecting only 4 points from a possible 18.
The Blues have decided to keep their under-fire boss Kenny Jackett at the helm, following yesterday’s 4-1 embarrassment at Northampton. The club’s board are remaining squarely behind the 59-year-old, in the wake of a result which goes down as one of the low points in the club’s modern history.
Lee Johnson:
“There’s a lot of football still to play, that’s for sure, but you want to time your run – and now’s the time. We know how difficult our March is, and there might be a few bumps in the road.”
“Confidence is high, there are a few things we can get better at, but the group has been excellent since we came in. The strength in depth is there and we have to keep building on it and win more games.”
“Our strength in depth is showing now with the injuries that we have had. Most teams have them when the games come thick and fast, but the lads coming in have been excellent. Luke O’Nien, Dan Neil, Ollie Younger … they have all come in of late and done well.”
“It is a good game on Tuesday, Portsmouth are a good side. We will have a game plan and we have to take care of the business ourselves, no matter who we face. We have been doing that of late, and it must continue.”
Kenny Jackett:
‘Hopefully James (Bolton) can now build on his appearance. He has pushed himself through in the previous 24 hours to get himself right. We checked again in the morning and he felt that he was good to come on at some stage if we needed it.”
“Sometimes until you actually do play, you never quite know. That bit at the end of the game will help him and give him confidence in terms of him being sure that his ankle was all right. He was also fine at the end of the game, and is in contention for Tuesday.”
“Callum (Johnson) is still out for another one or two weeks. We’ve had a few injuries at right-back recently and you do have these spells in football. It’s unfortunate but it happens.”
“Haji (Mnoga) had a very, very tight groin on Friday. He didn’t feel that he could strike a ball properly, it was then too close to really push him through to the game.”
Match Appointments:
Referee: DAVID ROCK
Assistant Referees: Gareth Viccars and Mark Derrien
Fourth Official: Craig Hicks
Team Line ups
Sunderland: Burge; Younger, Sanderson, O’Nien; Jones, Scowen, Power, McFadzean; O’Brien, McGeady, Wyke.
Subs: Matthews, Maguire, Diamond, Neil, Gooch, Vokins, Almond.
Injured: Xhemajli, Kimpioka, Hume, Stewart, Willis, Wright, Leadbitter, McLaughlin, Flanagan.
Portsmouth: (4-2-3-1) MacGillivray, Bolton, Nicolaisen, Raggett, Brown, Naylor, Cannon, Harness, Byers, Curtis, Marquis
Subs: Williams, Harrison, Watmough, Daniels, Ward, White, Hiwula-Mayifuila
Injured: Mnoga, Johnson
Betting Odds:
Home 8/5 Away 13/8 Draw 11/6
My two pence:
I’m very happy with a 2-0 win, not our best performance but we did just enough. It would have been nice to improve our goal difference with a few more goals, but getting the 3 points was much more important.
At least I’m no longer in an office full of Portsmouth fans. I just hope that we can do what they did to us earlier this season and set ourselves up nicely for Sunday’s day out at Wembley.
I'm going for a 3-1 away win.
Live on Sky Sports Football from 19:30
Ha’way the Lads
You must log in or register to see images
Last time out Sunderland beat Rochdale and Portsmouth lost at Northampton.
Sunderland continued to improve their chances of automatic promotion with another hard fought win at the Stadium of Light. Goals from Dion Sanderson and Charlie Wyke mean that the Black Cats are 5 points off top spot with 2 games in hand of leaders Hull City.
Lee Johnson could be without Carl Winchester but is hopeful that Lynden Gooch will recover from a calf strain. Grant Leadbitter was back training last week despite the dislocated shoulder that he suffered at Crewe.
The Black Cats lost 3-1 at home to Portsmouth earlier in the season, but the south coast club are on a bad run of form having lost 4 of their last 6 games, collecting only 4 points from a possible 18.
The Blues have decided to keep their under-fire boss Kenny Jackett at the helm, following yesterday’s 4-1 embarrassment at Northampton. The club’s board are remaining squarely behind the 59-year-old, in the wake of a result which goes down as one of the low points in the club’s modern history.
Lee Johnson:
“There’s a lot of football still to play, that’s for sure, but you want to time your run – and now’s the time. We know how difficult our March is, and there might be a few bumps in the road.”
“Confidence is high, there are a few things we can get better at, but the group has been excellent since we came in. The strength in depth is there and we have to keep building on it and win more games.”
“Our strength in depth is showing now with the injuries that we have had. Most teams have them when the games come thick and fast, but the lads coming in have been excellent. Luke O’Nien, Dan Neil, Ollie Younger … they have all come in of late and done well.”
“It is a good game on Tuesday, Portsmouth are a good side. We will have a game plan and we have to take care of the business ourselves, no matter who we face. We have been doing that of late, and it must continue.”
Kenny Jackett:
‘Hopefully James (Bolton) can now build on his appearance. He has pushed himself through in the previous 24 hours to get himself right. We checked again in the morning and he felt that he was good to come on at some stage if we needed it.”
“Sometimes until you actually do play, you never quite know. That bit at the end of the game will help him and give him confidence in terms of him being sure that his ankle was all right. He was also fine at the end of the game, and is in contention for Tuesday.”
“Callum (Johnson) is still out for another one or two weeks. We’ve had a few injuries at right-back recently and you do have these spells in football. It’s unfortunate but it happens.”
“Haji (Mnoga) had a very, very tight groin on Friday. He didn’t feel that he could strike a ball properly, it was then too close to really push him through to the game.”
You must log in or register to see images
Match Appointments:
Referee: DAVID ROCK
Assistant Referees: Gareth Viccars and Mark Derrien
Fourth Official: Craig Hicks
You must log in or register to see images
Team Line ups
Sunderland: Burge; Younger, Sanderson, O’Nien; Jones, Scowen, Power, McFadzean; O’Brien, McGeady, Wyke.
You must log in or register to see images
Subs: Matthews, Maguire, Diamond, Neil, Gooch, Vokins, Almond.
Injured: Xhemajli, Kimpioka, Hume, Stewart, Willis, Wright, Leadbitter, McLaughlin, Flanagan.
Portsmouth: (4-2-3-1) MacGillivray, Bolton, Nicolaisen, Raggett, Brown, Naylor, Cannon, Harness, Byers, Curtis, Marquis
Subs: Williams, Harrison, Watmough, Daniels, Ward, White, Hiwula-Mayifuila
Injured: Mnoga, Johnson
Betting Odds:
Home 8/5 Away 13/8 Draw 11/6
My two pence:
I’m very happy with a 2-0 win, not our best performance but we did just enough. It would have been nice to improve our goal difference with a few more goals, but getting the 3 points was much more important.
At least I’m no longer in an office full of Portsmouth fans. I just hope that we can do what they did to us earlier this season and set ourselves up nicely for Sunday’s day out at Wembley.
I'm going for a 3-1 away win.
Live on Sky Sports Football from 19:30
Ha’way the Lads
Last edited:
RTB
