Swansea City v Sunderland Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Swansea.com Stadium Date - 8 October 2022 Kick off - 3:00pm Following their outstanding victory at Watford, next up for Russell Martin’s improving Swansea squad is a home match against promoted Sunderland. On Wednesday evening, Ben Cabango's header in time added on saw Slaven Bilic suffer defeat in his first home game as Watford boss. Watford had led at the interval thanks to Ismaila Sarr's 34th-minute opener as he finished from close range. The Swans thought they had equalised on 42 minutes when Watford keeper Bachmann spilled Grimes' shot and Obafemi buried the rebound, but the linesman's flag for offside denied them. However, the Swans deservedly equalised on 52 minutes when Olivier Ntcham's scored from 20 yards following good work by Matt Grimes. In the 97th minute, man of the match Ryan Manning provided an inch perfect centre which enabled the unmarked Ben Cabango to head home the winner - incredibly, the 7th minute into 17 minutes of added time after the match officials' technology had failed. The win lifted the Swans into the Championship play-off positions for the first time this season as they rose to sixth spot in a very tight table. The previous evening, Sunderland endured a second goalless draw at the Stadium of Light in three days as the points were shared between themselves and Blackpool. Jack Clarke went closest for them in the first half and again right at the death with a header which forced a wonder save from Blackpool goalkeeper Chris Maxwell. However, the draw meant that it is just one home Championship victory for the Black Cats since their return to the Championship as they moved up to eighth: they have won 3 on the road, including a win at 3rd placed Reading. The Swans have played Sunderland on 34 previous occasions, winning 10, losing 13 and drawing 11. The teams last met in Swansea in a PL match in December 2016 when the Swans ran out 3-0 winners, courtesy of a Siggurdson penalty and a brace from Llorente: https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...and/10691027/ft-swansea-3-0-sunderland/more/8 Turning to Saturday, whilst Sunderland under Tony Mowbray will be no slouches, I’m hopeful that the Swans will register a 4th consecutive/successive Championship win for the first time under Russell Martin. I’m going 2-1 to the Swans
I didn’t expect anything from the WBA or Watford games so I’m gonna stick with not expecting anything from this one as well!
Quite the conundrum! Have we actually improved to the point where RM is steering us onto better things or is it yet another false dawn of optimism? Too early to say at this point. What we do know is we are playing better, getting results and the squad should be full of confidence. So on that basis a win is predictable. But I'll say 1 - 1!
I said at the start of the season that we will be a better away side than home this season. So on that basis it's a 1-1 for me
We may not have improved but the confidence must be better and this may get us some good results. Every time the Swans get us excited they slip up, so hopeful but not expecting any thing from this one.
Gavin Ward will be the man in the middle when Swansea City host Sunderland at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday. This will be the Surrey-based official’s second trip to SA1 this term having taken charge when the Swans hosted Millwall in August. On that occasion, he handed out five bookings with Ryan Manning and Michael Obafemi carded for the Swans. Ward took charge of his first EFL match in 2007 - a League Two encounter between Barnet and Hereford – and, after 10 years working primarily in the lower leagues, he was added to Select Group 2 ahead of the 2018-19 season. Saturday will be the 13th time Ward has overseen a Swans match since first blowing the whistle in SA1 in February 2010. So far this term, Ward has taken charge of nine matches – mostly in the Championship – handing out 27 yellow cards and no reds. On the weekend, he will be assisted by Andrew Dallison and Bhupinder Gill. Coincidentally – as was the case for the Millwall game last month – Ollie Yates will be the fourth official.
Morgan Whittaker scooped the League One Player of the Month award for September. The Swansea loanee netted against Derby County while also scoring match-winners against Oxford United and Ipswich Town to help fire the Pilgrims to the summit of the third tier standings.
Momentum is a good thing. Everything will click today and we will be comfortable 3-0 winners. Burnley will draw (again) at Coventry and we will move up to 5th.
The worst ever refereeing I've ever seen was that time we played Sunderland in the PL a few yers back. Honestly the most shocking display I've ever seen from a ref. Hoping we won't get a repeat of that. The second worst was the Wales v Poland match a couple of weeks ago.
That ref against Sunderland was Graham Scott - the same guy who gave a penalty against us last Saturday ….. Hope I’m allowed to use the word ‘guy’ ….
Get that firestick and some very useful software(that shall not be named) that will give you everything including Swans TV........
