Sunderland welcome Hull City to the Stadium of Light. Last time out, Sunderland drew with Burnley and Hull drew with Rotherham. The Black Cats played out a 0-0 draw with leaders Burnley with a strong defensive display and became the first away team to prevent Burnley from scoring this season. Dennis Cirkin, who has recently recovered from a concussion injury, and January signing Joe Anderson both played 90 minutes in the U21s win over Nottingham Forest, Niall Huggins was withdrawn as a precaution after he reported a tight hamstring. Hull City are in 17th place with 48 points, the Tigers have won one game in their last 6 outings. Influential striker Aaron Connolly is back in training, he was not fit enough to be considered for the 0-0 draw against the Millers but could be back in the squad to face Sunderland. Tony Mowbray: “Amad arrived at the hotel at 7pm on Thursday night, He came straight from Manchester when his flight got in. He hasn’t trained with anybody all week, so we had no idea what his physical condition is.” "We would obviously want to start with Amad, but we couldn’t. It would have been the wrong thing to do. Trai is the only player who was away with internationals who played, and that was because he hadn’t had any minutes for Northern Ireland. He came back and was pretty fresh. Obviously, Dan Ballard’s a big miss to this team, who’s going to be out for a few weeks, and Jewison Bennette has obviously dislocated his shoulder. "The other two lads who played two games in southern Spain, in the Marbella area, they played a lot of football, two and a bit games. They’ve both been busy, so they sat on the bench, even though they came back on Thursday. The team picked itself really because none of those lads could play, they’d been away from the club all week." “I thought the balance was alright tonight, it's great that some of the young lads got game time in that environment and it's good for the experience of the team. “I genuinely feel that if we get recruitment right in the summer, we can be a force in this league and give them problems.” Liam Rosenior: Ryan Woods and Matt Ingram are back available for selection which is really positive for us. "Other than that, there's no real news to give," he added, with Cyrus Christie and Benjamin Tetteh both ruled out for the rest of the campaign. Match Appointments: Referee: Keith Stroud Assistant Referees: Sam Lewis & Matthew Smith Fourth Official: Ross Joyce Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Gooch, Neil, Michut, Ekwah, Clarke, Amad, Roberts. Subs: Bass, Cirkin, Ba, Pritchard, Lihadji, Gelhardt, Anderson Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Ballard, Alese, Bennette, Huggins Hull (4-2-3-1) Darlow, Coyle, Jones, McLoughlin, Greaves, Seri, Slater, Ebiowei, Traoré, Sayyadmanesh, Longman. Subs: Ingram, Elder, Tufan, Docherty, Vaughan, Woods, Simons Injured: Estupinan, Pelkas, Christie, Tetteh. Betting Odds: Sunderland 1/1 Hull 11/4 Draw 12/5 Prutton Predicts: 2-1 My two pence: Hull always seem to up their game against us, so I expect them to cause a few problems. Their recent form is very similar to ours with 1 win in 6, however I think we are getting back to where we were before the tough run of games and we should have enough quality to beat them. I’m going for a 2-0 home win. Live Stream: Live on SkySports Football Ha’way the Lads
I was really looking forward to this until I read that . The bairn has a footy tournament at Ford Hub before this one so we will be hot footing it over after it finishes (or maybe before the end, depending how his team does) . I've gone for 6-0 in the prediction league but I feel that's a tad optimistic................... For Hull 8-0 to the lads and we run riot on a fantastic Friday. Ha'way the Lads, ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK
Stroud is poor but there’s no arguments with the O’Nien red card against Swansea IMO. A stupid challenge at the time.
Sharing the points seems the theme when we play this lot. Time to show them our qualities and run out comfortable winners, I was very relaxed pre Burnley and feel that's how it will be for the remainder of the season, Thanks RTB, you can put your feet up shortly HTL.
RTB I like your team and personally I would give it a try. If Neil is pushed forward he may have more shooting chances, as I reckon he does have goals in him However not sure if Michut and Ekwah are DMs. Pritchard is always busy but it seems he doesn't score and his corners and free kicks have been poor lately. Gelhardt and Cirkin will make an appearance at some point. 2-0, Amad and Clarke
A back four made up of players who were each written off in turn ... ... now looks pretty solid and dynamic. I'm sure Hume will develop into an 'Evans replacement' in time, tackles, passes, heads the ball and is non-stop ... he's a real gem imo.
Great match report RTB….as always. Going for a 3 - 0 to the lads and a statement of intent performance. Roberts, Clarke and Gelhardt
Canny team that RTB, could also swap the midfield round and have Michut as a deep midfielder with Neil and Ekwah ahead of him. Definitely rather Amad upfront than Gelhardt. Not his position but no doubt he's more dangerous.
He could try this on Friday tbh. Cirkin got a full 90 for the 21s so he could come back in with Gooch going to RB.
I think Mowbray will continue with Gelhardt, not because he is what we need but because Amad is more effective playing in a free role than trying to play with his back to goal with a couple of centre half's hanging off him. The only other option I can see is Pritchard in the false 9 role which was relatively successful for a couple of games earlier on in the season.
