Sunderland travel to the New York Stadium to face Rotherham in the Championship Last time out Sunderland drew with Bristol City and Rotherham lost to Coventry. Sunderland seemed to be in control after Jack Clarke's superb strike but the visitors were awarded their first spot kick for over a year when Dasilva burst into the box and was fouled by a stumbling Trai Hume. Nahki Wells beat Sunderland keeper Anthony Patterson to deny the Black Cats just as they sought to rack up three consecutive league wins for the first time this season. Tony Mowbray is expected to rotate his squad once more as the games come around thick and fast. Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Huggins & Gooch remain unavailable due to injury. Rotherham United will be anxiously looking over their shoulders at the lower end of the Sky Bet Championship table as second-half strikes from Jamie Allen and Viktor Gyokeres for Coventry City condemned them to back-to-back defeats. The Millers are 21st in the table with 33 points, just 2 points clear of the relegation zone. Tony Mowbray: "When Jack whacked that one in, I thought we'd get over the line but we have to accept the penalty, put the point in the bag and move on,” "I think both teams were pretty young, pretty athletic. "We could feel their threat and we tried to organise our team to prevent the counter because that's where a lot of their goals have come from - they nick it in midfield and then break quickly with the athleticism that they have. “We tried to stop that and it took a little bit away from our forward momentum, I think. But if you're overly cavalier you find yourself 2-0 down, so we lost a bit of sting. “It's a great experience for us to play against that knowledge and experience. It was just another challenge for our young team and generally we handled it well, other teams are allowed to attack us and have a gameplan, that's football. "We just couldn't quite see it over the line. It's a good experience for us. So, let's take those seven points from this week and move on." Matt Taylor: "That first half probably warranted a little bit more than what we went in at half time with. "Jordan Hugill's free header was another chance where we look back and think what could have been. "It was then a real blow to concede that goal early on in the second half. "It took the stuffing out of us and we looked more 'leggy' and then under pressure executions seemed to let us down - even towards the end where we got some big bodies on the pitch. We didn't quite get that ball in and around them and close to them. "First half I thought it was a relatively even game but we had the better of the opportunities. "We certainly had the better of the field position and put them under pressure. "A defensive lapse and a good bit of play from the opposition early in the second half and all of a sudden we're chasing the game. "We're searching for something in and attacking sense." Match Appointments: Referee: CHRIS KAVANAGH Assistant Referees: Edward Smart & James Mainwaring Fourth Official: Scott Oldham Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Cirkin, Batth, Ballard, O’Nien, Neil, Ekwah, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt. Subs: Bass, Hume, Michut, Ba, Elise, Lihadji, Pritchard Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Gooch. Rotherham United (4-3-2-1) Johansson, Bramall, Hall, Humphreys, Peltier, Coventry, Odoffin, Ferguson, Rathbone, Ogbene, Hugill. Subs: Vickers, Hjelde, Kelly, Washington, Wright, Eaves, Fosu Injured: Wiles, Morrison Unavailable: Bailey Wright Betting Odds: Sunderland 23/20 Rotherham 5/2 Draw 11/5 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: I’m not sure how we get the same ref within a week, but Kavanagh was the referee at QPR - so not great but we still won that one. Rotherham have lost 2 on the bounce and are getting nervous with the other teams at the bottom picking up points, we play better away from home and we need to bounce back. I think we will have enough to beat them. I’m going for a 3-0 away win. Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Fancy us to win this one. Agree on Cirkin coming in. I think Amad might get another breather with Pritchard playing off Joffy. I'll go 0-2 HTL
Cheers for another great thread RTB. I think we'll have too much for Rotherham, so I'm going for 1-3 to the lads
Absolutely brilliant thread mate, always makes the next match real when I see these pop up ... ... really focuses my mind and starts the countdown to the game. It's officially only a day away, today's almost over and Tuesday is matchday ... Ha'way the Lads!!! We'll want to 'reclaim' the dropped points from yesterday so I'm going 3-0 again.
I posted my 2-7 a match early so I will stick with it. Although they are struggling they do not concede that many. Tuesday it changes. 2 x early goals they capitulate and Geldy gets his 1st HT for us. Baath to score with Pritch n Amad x 2 to complete the rout. Weird having the same ref. Cheers RTB another tremendous write up.
Fantastic stuff again RTB. The Lads will be sorely pissed off after conceding the late penalty and I fully expect a reaction on Tuesday night. I would bring Cirkin in for Alese and let him and Clarke loose on the Rotherham back line. I would also stick with Roberts and Amad, which will give them a real problem. They can't double up on both flanks without weakening themselves in the middle. Important we use our bench well and keep our players as fresh as possible for Coventry, which will be a tough game. I hope we are 3 up by the 60 minute mark. I can't see past a win for the Lads. 3-1 and a further consolidation of our play off spot.
Re: the Coventry game. Will any of our staff or players etc have any idea of the deep loathing most of us feel towards these cheating b*stards. To be fair to most of them they will wonder what the fuss is about as it was a long long time ago. For the record I am on the "I still despise the c*nts and hope they go out of business" side of things.
Apart from the 1-5 in league 1 we do pretty well against these. They've some big lads so be careful with free kicks/ corners, BW is they're spy in the camp but if we can get our forwards at it then can only see an away win.HTL Thanks again RTB.
I think we could actually batter Rotherham. They've won once since November and look to be the favourites for relegation at this moment. We've got a bit more squad depth to be able to play 2 games a week and I think our quality will tell. Rotherham 0-4 Sunderland
Think we'll see some changes, we looked a bit leggy at times on Saturday. Wonder if he might rest Hume as per RTB's team. I think Pritch will come back in and it wouldn't shock me to see Gelhardt benched Patterson O'Nien Ballard Batth Cirkin Neil Michut Roberts Pritchard Clarke Amad Great to have so many options in the squad
Hume was looking tired after a tough game yesterday, Joffy Geldhart is learning on the job and not really used to so much game time and as Tony Mowbray has said, they've had very little training time between games since Joffy joined us. He probably need a rest too. Michut was excellent again but Ekwah is probably better suited for this game. We have lots of exciting options and I'm sure whoever plays will do a job.
Great thread as ever RTB as smug said earlier starts the countdown to match day, I think we persist with Geldhart I’d give Amad a seat on the bench he covered some ground on Saturday and let Pritchard at them, minchut had a good game but maybe Ekwah’s more physical presence will serve us better, I’m not one for shoe horning people into the team but Hume could benefit for rest. I trust uncle Tony to do what’s best for the young lads tho , 0-2 for me hopefully Geldhart getting off the mark COME ON
As much as my team had Gelgardt on the bench i think if he does play he would benefit from having Pritch play up close to him. He has looked isolated at times in recent games and ended up coming really deep to get the ball. Am confident he will score goals if we can get him playing on the shoulder of teh last man and/or having Pritch/Michut/Neil sliding balls in between the centre half and the full back
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spo...erlands-january-signing-silky-smooth-26258135 Sunderland's January signing with a 'silky-smooth' left foot is almost ready for his first start January addition Pierre Ekwah is close to being ready to start games for Sunderland - with boss Tony Mowbray convinced he can use his physicality to complement his 'silky-smooth' left foot. Midfielder Ekwah joined the Black Cats from West Ham almost a month ago and has taken his first steps in senior football with the Wearsiders, making his first-team debut in the FA Cup against Fulham and then his league debut in the draw at Millwall a fortnight ago. He has played a part in each of Sunderland's last five games but all of his outings have come from the bench. Mowbray feels the 21-year-old has plenty of potential and is looking forward to giving him more game time in the coming weeks to build him up towards his first start. "He's not far away from that [his first start], I have to say," said Mowbray. "I really like what he brings.
RTB Ballard and Amad to score, 2-0. I see you have put 09 as RB, a rest for Trai Hume... not a bad idea. I think Pritchard makes the team tick, but he struggles to score. So without, you know who, we need Clarke Amad and Roberts playing as likely scorers. Gelhardt still has a couple of games to go of bedding in. However needs to be hitting the back of the net has a good work rate.
