Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Birmingham City – Saturday 11th November 2023 - KO 12:30

Losing all faith in the officiating of the game nowadays. A comfortable 3-1 and I've left with a bit of a sour taste because of frustrating refereeing.

 

Enjoyed that. Cracking win.

 

International break come at a great time for Ekwah. I'd have probably been resting him for the next game.

Jobe is going away with England youth so personally my team for the next game would be:

Patterson
Hume
Huggins
O'Nien
Ballard

Ekwah
Neil
Pritchard

Roberts
Clarke
Rusyn


Had we had a game this midweek I'd probably stick Aouchiche in for Ekwah.

And Roberts is literally hanging onto his spot with his fingernails for me. Both Mayenda and Rusyn could be trusted to go out there, along with Ba and Aouchiche. He's got the same amount of goal contributions this season as Bennette, who has only played for 9 minutes.

As I said earlier, there's way more to the game than goals and assists, I know that. I just don't think he's contributing anywhere near as highly as he should be, and is one of the most predictable players we have.

 

I would go with that team but replace Pritchard with Aouchiche. Would love to see him play the number 10 role

 

Comfortable win, all played well, Adil looks a level above.

Guess we have a decent squad

 

My only reason for not starting Aouchiche is so that I can bring him on with his energy. Pritchard edges a start for me purely for his experience and his ability to lay things on for Rusyn

But you're probably right.

 

What I like about these lads is they never hide after making a mistake, of course they're not going to get it right all the time but Ekwah who didn't have his best game for us but he was always available.
Birmingham pressed us really well in midfield putting extra pressure on him and Neil but they got stuck in, it wasn't always pretty but we deserved the points.

 

I can see Pritchard going in January. He's not getting the minutes he had previously.

 

I wont lose any sleep if we do. Thats no disrespect to Pritch but we are well covered in that area even more so when Rigg returns

 

I agree, great skills but I have said for a while, he is a luxury we can't really afford until his contribution improves

 

2 minutes silence was brilliantly observed as well

 

I said he was a Rolls Royce footballer last week, well he's a Ford Anglia footballer this week

 

Happy with that today. Thought we were going to be the masters of our own downfall when we kept handing Birmingham chances. Through Seelt and Triantis looked untroubled and our attacking lads were good. Shame for Mayenda not to get a goal, but he looks a handful. Frustrating to see Cirkin injured again

 

Will say it again, but we play lovely football. A joy to watch at times.

 

The crowd need to stop shouting 'shoot' at Ekwah.

 

Nectar - so happy to make his debut, also great to see Cirkin filming him at the end of the game

 

I was going to suggest exactly the same thing but knew I'd spell his name wrong

 

Some nice results for us today.