Sunderland welcome Cardiff City to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland beat Huddersfield and Cardiff lost to Watford. The Black Cats secured a valuable 3 points at the John Smiths Stadium with goals from Alex Pritchard and Amad Diallo sealing a 2-0 away victory. Tony Mowbray will have a few selection problems as Jack Clarke returns from suspension and midfielders Jay Matete and Abdula BA impressing from the subs bench. Ellis Simms played 45 minutes and might be in contention to start. Eduoard Michut picked up a groin injury in the latter stages of the draw with Luton, so he was not involved at Huddersfield and will be out for the next two games. Jewison Bennette has been selected in the Costa Rican World Cup squad. Cardiff lost 2-1 at home to Watford on Wednesday evening despite taking the lead in the first half. Dean Whitehead returns to the Stadium of Light, having recently joined Mark Hudson’s backroom staff at Cardiff City. Tony Mowbray: "Give credit to Huddersfield, they moved the ball around well, gave us lots of problems and their rotations were good, but our performance was probably like the weather really, not very good at all. "It's great to be able to sit here, though, with three points in the bag and know that we are miles better than we showed tonight. We've got the points on the board and we'll move on and hopefully be a lot better on Saturday when Cardiff City visit the Stadium of Light and hopefully find a way to get back to the fluency we normally have." "If anything, it's probably my fault for picking too many attacking players today and we probably didn't have enough resistance to stop them being good with the ball. "I was trying to be bold with the team really, thinking that we could come here and dominate and yet they gave us plenty of problems and we weren't good enough with the ball or without the ball, in the first half particularly." "The idea was to give him half-an-hour really, but you have to have a physical presence, someone that wants to run in behind against these teams or else they can just squash you when you try to play in front of them and the wind's blowing and the rain's pouring down and the ball is skidding everywhere. "We just couldn't get them off our back really, so Simms had to go on and threaten over the top and in behind, and give us a presence to play off. I think that he helped enormously and we looked like we could score a goal in the second half." Mark Hudson: “Obviously we’re disappointed to concede the goals that we did, for all their individual quality the most disappointing thing is that we conceded from two corners. It is pleasing that we created the chances that we did and put them under pressure. “They had a good spell in the first half, but you see the second half that we can be brave, we can take it to teams, we can take it to top teams. They’ve got individual quality, but they didn’t hurt us from that. They hurt us from our own mistakes.” "We've brought in Dean Whitehead. It's all completed now, which is pleasing. I've been after him for a while. He is somebody that I've worked with previously, he's a very good coach and a very good human being. "I didn't want to rush into a decision. I wanted to make sure that it was right for everyone. Dean has a lot to add to our coaching unit." Match Appointments: Referee: ANDY DAVIES Assistant Referees: Adam Crysell and Mark Dwyer Fourth Official: Stephen Martin Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, Batth, Wright, O’Nien, Neil, Ba, Pritchard, Clarke, Roberts, Diallo Subs: Bass, Hume, Matete, Evans, Embleton, Bennette, Simms Injured: Huggins, Ballard, Stewart, Alese, Gooch, Michut Cardiff City: (4-3-3) Allsop, Sang, Ng, Kipré, Nkounkou, Rinomhota, Wintle, Ralls (c), O’Dowda, Harris, Ojo Subs: Alnwick, Watters, Romeo, Etete, Sawyers, Nelson, Philogene, Injured: Davies, Adams, Collins, Colwill. Suspended: Robinson Betting Odds: Sunderland 6/5 Cardiff 5/2 Draw 11/5 Prutton Predicts: 2-0 My two pence: Another slow start and not a great performance BUT it was a much needed 3 points at Huddersfield that saw us move up to 12th in the league. Jack Clarke is back and hopefully we will put on a good performance in our last home game before the World Cup break. Cardiff have struggled on their travels this season, but our home form is nothing to shout about either. I’m going for a 2-0 home win Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Due to EFL broadcast restrictions, SAFSee streaming will only be available to overseas-based supporters. Audio commentary will be available to all supporters. Ha’way the Lads
Yesssss. Here we go, haway the ****ing laaaddsss. 3-1 to the wizards. Simms, Dan Neil and Roberts. Great stuff as always RTB
Simms surely is ready to play 60 mins. If that is the case he just start. We have no one else and the difference is just too significant not to start him. Start well. Get the momentum and take him off if needs be. Be great to get the win. Back to back big 3's in this league is massive. Would help us no end.
Not a lot of recent form to go off against these, I watched their highlights v Watford and they conceded 2 poor goals from corners, and as you all know we're deadly at corners. They've a lot of pace upfront so we have to be careful but like Wedesday were playing a team lower than us in the league so a similar result would be brilliant HTL. Top lad again RTB.
Great thread again @RTB. Thanks for taking the time. Agree with @Prehab26 in terms of starting Simms. Front foot and look to take the game away from them. We've blown two goal leads twice at home this season, hopefully we can get ourselves in front and see it through with no dramas but time will tell. 3-1 to us and Clarke FGS.
Great thread RTB Im going for a win against these. Simms has to start - lets murder them first half and then kill the game off with an early goal second half. Bring on fresh young legs and bag the points Hawaaaaaay
RTB If I have my facts right we have 14 points from away games and 10 from home. So Saturday is a chance to improve the home results. Apart from the Burnley game we generally start poorly and finish strong. Let's hope for a good game for 90 minutes. The outcome a victory. As for the team, I agree with TM that the opposition have been getting to our back four too easily. Defensive midfielders imho are required, we have a few of them. TM will know how matchfit Simms is, but he needs to be on ASAP. Clarke is back, which is good, Roberts has not been up for it, in the past few games, but perhaps start him, if he is not in the mood, yank him off early, or bring him on as a sub. I haven't a clue what the score will be! Hopefully a clean sheet? My final plea, is to score a goal from a set piece, whilst not conceding one.
Agree with most of this but a bit harsh on Roberts. Maybe a lack of consistency but I think he just needs to vary what he's doing a bit more to get the results e.g the interaction with Amad the other night. I certainly don't think it's whether he's in the mood for it or not. No reason to question his attitude.
Hmm, I am not doubting the lads talent, in many respects he is our most gifted player, great dribbles, but does not deliver... what do you do. Another talented player who went from Villa to City, is also very talented (admittedly amongst other skilful players) is good to watch but goals and assists? For Roberts goals and assists are his metric... when we have Stewart in the box for him to cross to, his stats might improve. Clarke, on the other wing is probably not so outrageously talented as Roberts, but to date is in with a shout of being our player of the season, to date.
Great thread as usual but this post is to see if anyone has a spare ticket tbh. I'm driving up from Mansfield and all these games are becoming expensive. If anyone's not using their ticket I can put it to good use
Just had a quick glance at their forum and they dont appear to be too clever defending crosses or scoring from them.... https://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=230490 Hopefully this suits us and we can get it down and play with Clarke and Roberts. Sounds like it's ideal for Simms
Got their goal from a corner v Watford on Wednesday, CH I think, looks a big lad but was unchallenged for his header.
Was it that Kipre the mention on that thread? Seems like he is the only big lad they have got and they aren't very complimentary about their own keeper.
Heading up this afternoon with full complement of Mrs (no), two sons, daughter in law (also no) and eldest lads friends and their families from Notts who were originally from North Yorkshire but are Sunderland fans. Eleven of us in total. Eldest lads birthday so staying over tonight and tomorrow night. Can't wait. HTL
Cheers mate, the immediate family are heading up today with the others travelling up tomorrow. Out for a meal with my Dad (80) and brother and his missus and lad and my lot tonight. Eldest lads mates are travelling up tomorrow and staying over so it should be a cracking weekend. I'm expecting that all will make it up from his friends but if there are any no shows I'll message you on here re spare ticket.
Cardiff fans twisting about our ground regulations ... "This seems to imply that they will allow home fans to have coins. If so, the travelling club must complain to the Sunderland and the EFL about this blatant discrimination." ... yeah OK lads, take the moral high ground. Shame on Sunderland for trying to make sure away supporters don't act like absolute twats https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/17421215/cardiff-fans-destroy-bristol-city-toilets/
