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Sunderland visit the Bet365 Stadium to play Stoke City in the Championship.Last time out Sunderland lost to Middlesbrough and Stoke lost at Leicester.
Sunderland went into the international break after losing 4-0 to near neighbours Middlesbrough.
Tony Mowbay is expected to have a few of his injured players back in contention for the Stoke game however there is a slight doubt over Dan Ballard who returned from international duty with a niggling thigh injury. Bennette is probably recovering from jet-lag. Dan Neil is suspended.
Stoke's sixth defeat in eight games - a run that includes just one win - saw them slip to 21st in the table heading into the international break. Before the break Alex Neil had 8 first teamers out of action but expects 5 of those to be ready for a return on Saturday.
Tony Mowbray:
"In the referees' meeting before the game that the managers have to go to these days, the referee was talking about empathetically managing the game. Wow.
"A derby, over 40,000 people, and he gives a red card for gesticulating at him. That seems pretty harsh to me.
"Then, when you play against a football team with a man down, it's really difficult, as they pick the right pass. I see it as a learning curve for us."
Alex Neil:
"Our game plan was to come here, frustrate and try keep Leicester at arms length really. "We wanted to get to the late embers of the game and see if we could have a little bit of a go”
"The first goal changed the dynamic of the game. We then kept it going until the 60th minute, then when we decided to have a go. We discussed that, it was always going to be the game plan.
"You can see why teams come here and don't do that, because they have very quick players, they are good, they are technical, they move the ball. You have to go one-for-one across the whole pitch and at that stage we became a little stretched and they managed to get a goal.
"We gave it everything we have got."
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Match Appointments:
Referee: GRAHAM SCOTT
Assistant Referees: Edward Smart and Derek Eaton
Fourth Official: Will Finnie
Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Taylor, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Ekwah, Jobe, Clarke, Dack, Roberts, Rusyn.
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Subs: Bishop, Triantis, Seelt, Rigg, Ba, Auchiche, Burstow, Hemir, Pritchard.
Injured: Evans, Alese, Matete, Mayenda, Cirkin, Pembele, Huggins.
Suspended: Dan Neil
Stoke (4-4-2) Travers, Tchamadeu, McNally, Laurent, Thompson, Léris, Pearson, Burger, Johnson, Bae, Lowe.
Subs: Cunha Vidigal, Gayle, Bonham, Wesley, Haksabanovic, Jojic, Sidibe, Fielding, Dixon
Injured: Gooch, Rose, Wilmot, Campbell, Mmaee, Stevens, Baker, Tezgel.
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Betting Odds:
Sunderland 15/8 Stoke 12/5 Draw 11/4
Prutton Predicts: 2-2
My two pence:
According to Alex Neil, Stoke gave it all they’ve got against Leicester, hmm 25% possession 3 shots, 1 on target

however as we all know he somehow gets them fired up for games against us.Hopefully Ballard is OK and we have Ekwah and Dack back in the squad, we tend to play better away from home but we will miss Dan Neil in midfield.
I’m going for a 2-2 draw
Live Stream:
This game is available to overseas fans.
https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video
Ha’way the Lads
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