Sunderland defender Kilgallon to keep his place

Sunderland defender Kilgallon to keep his place
by Steve Brown, Evening ChronicleApr 5 2012Add a comment Recommend

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MATT KILGALLON is set to retain his place at the heart of Sunderland’s defence this weekend – after overcoming the injury problems which hampered the Black Cats’ trip to Manchester City last Saturday.

The 28-year-old made his first start since January, replacing loan star Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

But after impressing as his side forged into a 3-1 lead at the Etihad, the centre-back suffered a blow to the ankle and cramp during the latter stages, and within five minutes of his withdrawal City were level.

However, Kilgallon has trained for the last two days, and with Titus Bramble, John O’Shea and Wes Brown still sidelined, looks set to continue alongside Michael Turner against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, and Everton on Monday.

“Everything was happening to him against Man City,” O’Neill said.

“But he trained on Tuesday, when we did one versus ones and two versus twos, which I don’t think he was overly pleased about!

“He didn’t want to come off against City, but he had cramp for about five minutes.

“The last thing you want in that situation is to get turned and not be able to get a challenge in.

“It upset our rhythm a little bit when he went off because he’d been doing particularly well. It was disappointing from that point of view.”

With Lee Cattermole and Fraizer Campbell both nursing knee injuries, O’Neill added: “We’ve got a couple of boys who’ll not do much training.

“Lee hasn’t been in training so far this week with the knee injury, but by Saturday we hope he’ll be okay.

“In training on Tuesday, Fraizer Campbell stretched himself a little bit too. I’m not too sure how serious that will be.”


finally a bit of good news for the weekend

 

Good on Killa, well deserved.

"Frazier" and "knee" in the same sentence always gets me worried. Hope he's fine.

 

me to mate i thing he may be trying too hard in training to impress for a start

 

you may be right about that. MON may need to whisper in his ear that he has a long career ahead of him.

 

pleased as punch, a good player and should remain at the club as he proved the prem is no problem for him and it seems he has a clubmans attitude about the way he conducts himself

 

this

 

Great news!

Fast becoming one of my favourite players is Kilgallon.

 

A fully justified decision imho.

 

I feel thay Killa has come of age since MON took over, and could now go on to be a regular at the centre of our defence.

 

i just feel he's been given the chance since mon took over. he's now (i would imagine) playing the games he joined us to play, and he's stepped straight up to the plate and hasn't put a foot wrong. his attitude is admirable too, i just wish every player we had thought the same as him.

 

He has to make the most of it, as once O'Shea and Brown are back together he may find it hard to get a game...

 

Good comment mate, sad but true, can only be good for the club, having a choice of players.

 

but he is in the second string of CBs for us and challanging for that third CB position

 

The lad has taken his chance after two years is it in the stiffs under that man, more than happy as I thought he was a decent player at Sheffield. The Campbell one is a worry and although we say this time and again he does need a rest, what games we do this in is up to MON though.