Sunderland welcome Southampton to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland drew at Coventry and Southampton beat QPR. Sunderland have won one of their opening games and are 18th in the Championship. Sunderland's Patrick Roberts has a minor hamstring strain and he will not be available for the game. Rigg, Embleton and Seelt could feature from the bench. Lynden Gooch and Ross Stewart are both expected to leave before this game. Corry Evans, Jay Matete, Aji Elise and Eliezer Mayenda continue to recover from long-term injuries. After relegation from the Premier League, the Saints have won 3 and drawn one of their opening fixtures in the Championship. New Saints captain Jack Stephens went off injured after 25 minutes against QPR and will be out for a few months. Tony Mowbray: “He’s (Ba) got talent, he’s got speed, he’s got power, he’s an inexperienced senior level football player. He’s played youth football for France, he’s not experienced in men’s football, we’re trying to give him game time. “With Patrick not being available, it’s a chance to give him some game time, there’s been flashes.Like with a lot of young players they lack consistency and Abdoullah falls into that bracket a little bit. You’re not sure what you’re going to get but on his hot moments he’s very hot.” “The club recruited amazingly well to get out of League One and to finish in the play-off positions last year. I’m pretty confident the club are focused on knowing what the team needs to go from a good team to a very good team, let’s see what the week brings.” Russell Martin: "We were too slow in the first half and not enough willingness to run. That's the first time we have played against that shape and we tried to guess. We'll learn a lot from that. "The mentality when we score is nowhere near good enough, we need to address that. It's ridiculous. We were not happy at all at half-time. "We started the second half not very well but I enjoyed the last half-hour. We are winning while learning and winning while building. "If you'd have said 10 points from 12 with all the nonsense going on and all the noise then I'm really pleased with that." Match Appointments: Referee: David Coote Assistant Referees: Timothy wood and Mark Scholes Fourth Official: Ollie Yates Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Cirkin, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Neil, Ekwah, Clarke, Dack, Ba, Jobe Subs: Bishop, Triantis, Seelt, Hemir, Huggins, Rigg, Bennette, Pritchard, Taylor. Injured: Evans, Alese, Matete, Mayenda, Roberts. Southampton (3-4-1-2) Bazunu, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Downes, Manning, Alcaraz, Charles, Armstrong, Amo-Ameyaw, Armstrong, Edozie Subs: Aribo, Lumley, Bree, Mara, Djenepo, Fraser, Doyle, Holgate. Injured: Sulemana, Stewart, Stephens, Larios. Betting Odds: Sunderland 9/5 Southampton 11/8 Draw 5/2 Prutton Predicts: 2-2 My two pence: Lots of transfer rumours flying around It would be great to go into the international break with another 3 points, Southampton have some decent players and may even end up with a few of ours... They do like to play possession football but I think we will have enough to beat them I’m going for a 2-1 home win. Live Stream: This game will be shown live on Sky Football / Main event Ha’way the Lads
We’re ****ing doooooomed. 0-8. Jokes aside hard to gauge until we see who we have in and who hasn’t legged it, dare say be a competitive game. Even without departures if I’m honest I’ve got this one down as a narrow defeat, they just have a bit more than us.
Brilliant thread as always @RTB thank you. I will be reserving voting till tomorrow's fun and games are.over with
Stewart with a last min winner making a surprise appearance off the bench But who for? Chris Kamara..............
They've won on their last two visits so time to change that. Sky will be pulling their plonkers over Southampton so would be nice to upset them, tight game but we can do it HTL.
This for me, but as always, come teatime tonight I'll be looking forward to tomorrow... especially going to the ground early to meet a couple of mates for a beer... Hhhaaawwwwaaaaayyyyyyy the lads
Gone for a win, and why not , the spirits need a lift, and whats better than a Match Day Thread , Haway the lads. . OaU.
Thanks again RTB for a brilliant thread. Been a cracking day so far and feeling positive. Settle for a point but sneaking a home win would be great. Couple of weeks after to sort all the new lads out and get the season really going. Keep the faith lads and lasses.
