Sunderland travel to the CBS Arena to face Coventry in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland lost at Rotherham and Coventry beat Rotherham. Sunderland started slowly at Rotherham despite having more possession but missed a number of opportunities after falling behind to a well struck shot from Ollie Rathbone. Shane Ferguson doubled the lead after the break, steaming forward to receive Tariqe Fosu's sweeping pass and plant a low finish in off the post. Joe Gelhardt opened his goal scoring account when he met Luke O'Nien's inch-perfect cross to head in from close range and halve the deficit. Tony Mowbray made three changes with Hume, Alese and Roberts making way for Cirkin, O’Nien and Pritchard and said after the game that maybe he had made too many changes to his young squad. Gooch and Huggins returned to training this week but Embleton, Stewart & Evans remain unavailable due to injury. Coventry beat Rotherham 2-0 at the weekend and currently sit in 11th position with 45 points. City's second win in five days, after Gyokeres broke his goal drought against Millwall on Tuesday night, keeps them in the hunt for a top-six finish as former Rotherham boss Mark Robins' side climb to 11th, now back to just four points off the play-off spots. Defenders Jonathan Panzo and Fankaty Dabo look set to be back in contention for Saturday's televised match with Tony Mowbray's Black Cats at the CBS Arena. Callum O’Hare suffered an ACL injury and Fabio Tavares ruptured his Achilles and both are out for the season. Tony Mowbray: "It was a big learning curve for us tonight," Teessider Mowbray, 59, told BBC Radio Newcastle. "It took us until we were 2-0 down before we really looked like the team that we are. "For this team to function and win football matches in this league, we need everybody to be at maximum really. "Particularly (in the) first half we fell well short of that, even through we tried to get them ready for what was going to be a super-intense game." "It's the first one [defeat] on the road since October, so we shouldn't be too disappointed with it, but obviously we are disappointed because we've lost a game," Mowbray added. "It's been a pretty good record away from home and we have to get back to winning ways as quickly as we can." "We have to accept it, congratulate Rotherham, lick our wounds and get ready for Saturday." Mark Robins: "This was good because this is a difficult place to come. We won 1-0 last time but the previous time we got hammered 4-0. "We spoke at half-time about upping the work-rate 10% and how that would win us the game. The breakaway for the first goal was brilliant, but before that, we another chance when we just over-hit the pass a little bit. "We managed the game pretty well - to a man we stood up to them, because they're a very physical team." Match Appointments: Referee: DEAN WHITESTONE Assistant Referees: Daniel Leach & Matthew Smith Fourth Official: Andy Woolmer Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Hume, Batth, Ballard, Alese, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt. Subs: Bass, O’Nien, Ba, Ekwah, Pritchard, Lihadji, Bennette Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Gooch. Coventry City (3-2-4-1) Wilson, McNally, McFadzean, Doyle, Hamer, Allen, Eccles, Palmer, Norton-Cuffy, Bidwell, Gyökeres Subs: Moore, Rose, Kelly, Wilson-Esbrand, Walker, Godden, Burroughs. Injured: O’Hare, Tavares, Sheaf Betting Odds: Sunderland 9/4 Coventry 5/4 Draw 9/4 Prutton Predicts: 2-2 My two pence: Well at least we don’t have Kavanagh as ref this week. Coventry managed to beat Rotherham so this will be a tough game and they always seem to up their game against us. Gyokores and Hamer are very dangerous so let’s hope that we learnt our lessons from the Rotherham game. I’m going for a 2-2 draw. Live Stream: Sky Sports Football The match is not available to watch on SAFC Live or iFollow either in the UK or overseas due to it being selected for live coverage by Sky Sports Ha’way the Lads
Great thread mate, as always. Time for us to move on from last night as fans. I have no doubt the players and coaches have. All eyes on this one now. Not an easy game, but few are to be fair. Happy with your team as well. Time to show a bit of faith in those that underperformed, they deserve it having been so bloody good for so long. On we go. Haway the lads.
Games against these are always tight and we need to bounce back from yesterday, taking our chances would help of course and we need to be up for it from minute one. Joffy getting off the mark might be a catalyst for him to be the player we need leading the line. TM needs to get his selection right and a point wouldn't be a disaster but always hoping for all three. Well done again RTB....HTL.
We have a bloody good team that's more than capable of beating Coventry ... ... 2-0, two for Geldhart and the only NE team to win this weekend. Ha’way the Lads!!!
Our record at Coventry is pretty poor and we look very tired as a squad.My heart says a win to the lads but my head says a narrow home win, 2-1 to Coventry.
Just watched the Rotherham highlights in the cold light of day ... ... poor game but we played some great football that could've easily won the game. The style we have won't always come off but I love it. Please don't change and become just another ordinary lumpy Championship outfit ... .... ignore the handful of keyboard critics and keep trying to play this skin of your teeth marvellous football.
With this kind of style sometimes it all clicks and seems like we're watching Brazil ... ... sometimes it doesn't and we just can't get a grip and win the game. But, in either case, it's way better than entire seasons of the grinding attritional football we've often had to suffer. Anyone who wants to go back to the pragmatic earnest days of the past has my sympathy ... ... after too many wasted trips around the country I'm loving seeing my team being brave and taking chances
Absolutely. Was saying same to another lad other day, I just brush off defeats at moment. Doesn't bother me.
if the ref/linesman are being bunged we will not win, cos that is what is going on this season it is shocking.
I remember a 2-0 under Roy Keane with around 35,000 there ... ... I doubt they'll manage much more than half that but we can definitely beat them.
RTB 2-0 Gelhardt and Roberts to score or perhaps Clarke. Personally I would start with 09 rather than Michut. Physically we should recover, young men bounce back quicker than older ones. Is Baath okay? Although we were poor on Saturday, we still made chances enough to win. Gelhardt is beginning to play a bit, I am hoping for more from him again this game. Needs the ball on his left foot it seems.
Aye. I was there for that. Think Stern John scored to get me a few bob. But we can give anyone a game if we get going and take a chance or two.
Yep,agree with this. He got himself into scoring positions.....suggests he's getting to grips with the idea. He looks like a bright player to me....a little more work on the training ground and we might be very pleased with what we see.
