Sunderland travel to Blackpool in the Championship in their first game of 2023 Last time out Sunderland beat Wigan and Blackpool lost to Sheffield United Sunderland fielded the youngest team to play in the top four tiers this season with an average age of 22 years and 268 days but the young team dominated a poor Wigan side and eased to a 4-1 away victory. Ellis Simms has been recalled by Everton. Alex Pritchard only played 2 minutes coming on as second half substitute and had to be replaced after suffering a recurrence of this calf injury. Danny Batth and Denis Cirkin could be involved. Corry Evans is expected to start after being rested. Blackpool, who have gone eight games without a win, slip a place to 23rd in the table, while the Black Cats are now 4th with 37 points. Tony Mowbray: "We're competing, and the target for this club is still to stay in this league, and to try and compete around mid-table. "That might be the case come the end of the season, depending on how the squad survives the rigours of the campaign. "At the moment, we're not dreaming of anything else, the fans can dream of course, because we're in the mix at the moment with loads and loads of other good clubs. "Lose two games, though, and all of a sudden you're 15th. Win two games, and all of a sudden you're fourth." "We're really disappointed over Pritch, we'll have to assess whether it was right that he went onto the pitch, yet he had trained for a good few days and was really confident, ready and champing at the bit. That's a real frustration for us, of course. Michael Appleton: "The players have shown great spirit to get themselves back into the game after going 2-0 down. "There was some really poor defensive decision making to allow that to happen but the one thing they have got is spirit in that dressing room and you could see right to the final whistle there's a never-give-up attitude which is clear to see. "That will go a long way between now and the end of the season. We're going to need that spirit we've shown. "There will be times in the season where two or three clubs will lose their spirit. We've got to make sure we hang in there and make sure we're not one of them." Match Appointments: Referee: TIM ROBINSON Assistant Referees: Craig Taylor and Andrew Fox Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (3-4-3) Patterson, Wright, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Neil, Evans, Clarke, Roberts, Omad, Stewart. Subs: Bass, Matete, BA, Michut, Bennette, Dajaku Injured: Embleton, Pritchard, Huggins, Alese, Gooch, Batth, Cirkin Blackpool (4-3-3) Grimshaw, Connolly, Ekpiteta, Husband, Thompson, Carey, Patino, Beesley, Poveda-Ocampo, Yates, Madine. Subs: Dougall, Moore, R Williams, Lavery, Hamilton, Wright, Moore Injured: Maxwell, Garbutt, Bridcutt, Corbeanu, Fiorini, Anderson Betting Odds: Sunderland 7/5 Blackpool 19/10 Draw 23/10 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: What a performance at the DW for such a young team we controlled the game and should have scored a few more goals. Blackpool are on a bad run and lets hope it continues. I’m going for a 2-0 away win Live Stream: Available on Sky International TV coverage 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. https://www.blackpoolfc.co.uk/news/...-game-selected-for-international-tv-coverage/ Ha’way the Lads
Looking forward to this one! Driving down early doors. Blackpool are in poor form and sit 23rd in the league. We’re playing well and should be targeting another win here.
Great performance at Wigan, very confident about this one. Only change from the team above would be to keep Ba in if possible, probably for Clarke with Roberts wide left but Ba took a canny whack at Wigan. HTL and safe travels everyone. (Don't think Simms will be on the bench )
Great thread as always @RTB Looks like Simms has gone back to Everton, so who replaced him on the bench? Happy to see that team start, but wouldn't mind seeing Michut and Ba start again. Needs a quick start to get at them, keep our confidence high and some early goals. 0-2. Stewart and Roberts
Well this is a much more realistic 0-7 scoreline . Absolute doddle. A team playing without fear and enjoying their football. Get an early goal, our fans behind us and I think& hope Blackpool capitulate. RTB. Once again another magnificent write up. Thank you Sir.
Michael Appleton seems to rise to the occasion when playing us and gets results they probably didn't deserve. We're in a good place and if form is any sort of guide then this has an away win written all over it.....however!!!
RTB Hmm with the news that Simms is not available, bit of a that's move by Lampard, with its timing in the muddle of a lit if fixtures! Stewart may have to start... with no replacement, grr. No Pritchard either, so perhaps Clarke, Roberts and Amad start behind him? So maybe 4 in defence and Neil and Evans in CM. We often react well in adversity... let's hope so. Can we make it 3 wins in a row... yep
On paper, we should batter them, but they are fighting for survival at the foot of the Championship. Unlike Wigan, they will make a game of it, so I am going for a narrow away win.
Thanks again @RTB Looking forward to travelling to this one and catching up with @Smug in Boots plus others. I think we'll sneak a win 2-1 to the lads. Hawaaaaaaaaay
A brilliant 2022 effort RTB many many thanks, you are a star. I'm struggling to remember any 100% xmas results return, so I'm going for this year to be the one . We mustn't get cocky and Blackpool will make it tough, so our win will be hard work , not pretty
Blackpool gave Shef Utd a very hard game so certainly no pushovers. I have heard it is only available on overseas channels. Anyone know which is the best?
Thanks again RTB for another great thread. Looking forward to this one, actually look forward to every game at the minute. A hard game expected but we do have enough to win this although I expect a much tougher game than Thursday at wigan. 3 wins over the Christmas season would be fantastic. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
Yeah - I just checked it's not showing up on safsee and it's not available on the Sky red button. Roger usually posts a link when the game starts
Simms leaving is a blow, especially as we have so many injuries. I wonder if TM will stick with the same shape, especially if it means he can get Amad and Pat Roberts on the pitch at the same time. Think we will see a host of changes v Shrewsbury, so as long as we can get through this unscathed then we have 2 weeks to get some of the injured lads back and hopefully find a replacement for Simms I'd go: Patterson Ballard Wright O'Nien Hume Evans Neil Clarke Diallo Roberts Stewart Subs: Bass, Matete, Michut, Dajaku, Bennette, Ba, U23 Wonder if the club is giving an consideration to recalling Winchester seeing as we are so short at the back?
Does Simms leaving prevent TM from giving Clarke a rest tomorrow as most on here think he's overdue one?
Think with it being the 3rd game in 6 days Mowbray will probably be picking freshest players he can. That means the likes of Stewart, Roberts and Evans are nailed on to start if not I’ll or picked up a training injury. If any of the injured lads have recovered they will have a chance of playing too - Gooch, Baath, Alese, Cirkin. Other options is to take a gamble and play the likes of Benette or Dajaku. We do seem to have a lot of depth in the squad - c.forward position excepted. Blackpool hopefully haven’t.
