Sunderland visit Bradford City in League One Last time out Sunderland drew with Peterborough and Bradford beat Wimbledon. The Black Cats will be seeking a vital win after failing to see the game out on Tuesday night against high flying Peterborough. Jack Ross will be without Loovens, Hume, O’Nien and Gooch but should have Honeyman back in contention. Lee Cattermole returns after his one match suspension but Bryan Oviedo will start a 3 match ban for his petulant kick and straight red card. Bradford had a shock away win in midweek having only won five of their last 30 games in League One (D7 L18) and were winless in each of their last six games in the competition (D1 L5). The Bantams could be without two or three of their young players in the game against the team travelling from Wearside. 19-year-old Lewis O'Brien could miss out through injury, whilst German 24-year-old Kai Brunker could also miss out. Jack Payne will be available for selection and looking to add to his four-goal tally, which was added to in midweek with his tidy penalty. Jack Ross: “Lee’s suspension is obviously over, If George comes through tomorrow’s training session okay in terms of the criteria for his recovery from concussion, he’ll be back available.” “Luke O’Nien is still ill at the moment. He was in this morning, but we had to send him away again, but hopefully he might recover enough to take part in some training tomorrow. Other than that, it’s as we were, and we add Bryan Oviedo’s suspension to that as well.” On Sinclair: “It is always important for strikers (to get goals), ultimately there are judged on that and they’ll judge themselves on that a lot of the time. He has had to to be independent, it has been stop-start for him. He was disappointed not to take the opportunity in the first half, it would have been easy to dwell on that." On McGeady: "I thought he did really well, he has been out now for close to four and a half months, a long time. He has had a couple of brief appearances from the bench. We both felt starting the game would be better for him, because sometimes that in a strange way is easier to find the pace of the gamer quicker than if you’re coming on as a sub." Dave Hopkin: “The players worked hard and closed the game down brilliantly. Wimbledon threw a lot at us but we held firm. Everyone who played gave 100 per-cent. I am delighted for the players as we have something to build on. We knew it was going to be difficult. Wimbledon are a good team and they are hard to beat at home.” “It was a great result for us and I am really pleased for the fans who made the long journey down to support us. We had to overcome a bit of adversity on the night, with a couple of players going down, making the result even more pleasing.” “We are building some momentum going into the Sunderland game, though, and have players coming back into contention. The support on Tuesday was fantastic and we are going to need everyone to come together and get behind us for what will be a massive game on Saturday.” Match Appointments: Referee: ANTHONY BACKHOUSE Assistants: Wade Smith and Chris Isherwood Fourth Official: Nik Barnard Team Line ups Sunderland: McLaughlin, Matthews, Baldwin, Flanagan, James, Cattermole, Power, Honeyman, McGeady, Maja, Maguire. Substitutes: Ruiter, Ozturk, Robson, McGeouch, Mumba, Sinclair, Kimpioka Injured: Watmore, Wyke, Hume, Love, Loovens, Gooch, O’Nien Suspended: Oviedo Bradford: O'Donnell, Mellor, McGowan, O'Connor, Knight-Percival, Scannell, Payne, O'Brien, Wood, Miller, Ball Substitutes: Isherwood, Gibson, Sykes-Kenworthy, Staunton, Goldthorp Injured: O’Brien, Brunker Betting Odds: H 29/10 A 10/11 D 12/5 My two pence: With Cattermole and Power both back we should dominate the midfield and with Maguire & Maja in good form we should create enough chances to win this vital game. If we can play like the first half against the Posh for the full game I'll be more than happy. My guess is a 3-1 away win Ha’way the Lads
Just reckon we will win as we are getting better & better. They are s h I t anarl. 0-2 to the lads. Bart
What I was going to say, they don't sound much good and we're improving game by game. Fancy us to win it and your prediction looks about right.
Was it them who committed a foul 3 yards inside the box and had a free kick given outside? If that’s the case, I don’t hold out much hope from a refereeing perspective
Point I was meant to mane (after a large bottle of red I may add) was that the decision went in favour of Bradford against a London club! What chance do we have!!
They have used up some of this season's luck. They were away at Wimbledon which makes that refereeing decision even more baffling.
We've always had a good league record at Bradford and can see that continuing tomorrow, I'll take 2-0 and no cards or injuries would be a bonus.
For me, Honeyman shouldn't be in the starting 11 - he doesn't do enough. There is enough attacking options with Maja, Maguire and McGeady. Power has also got the legs to get up and support the attack as well. So I would include McGeouk at the expense of Honeyman to provide an additional shield for a leaking defence
I know what you mean about Honeyman, objectively he could do more. However I'd be very reluctant to drop him because he gives his all every game and is the captain, he's also a local lad which doesn't hurt and I think he does more to knit the team together than he gets credit for, most attacks come through him at some stage. I wouldn't drop him unless we've got someone **** hot for his position. I think most of the goals we concede are from set pieces so swapping one midget for another even smaller one wouldn't help with that, time spent in training should help us stop shipping so many. Not that our goal difference is bad it's one of the best in the league.
It seems the Bradford city fire doesn't really get that much remberence thought this was lovely for tomorrow's match. Not mine. Took it from elsewhere.
Your right Vince it's the forgotten disaster outside the Yorkshire area. It's been hijacked by the Liverpool cup semi final incident because they shouted loudest. My brother in law was at that match in Bradford and it had an awful effect on him for years. Nice touch for today's game tho.
Great thread as ever RTB. Got to start winning games so i’ve gone for the away win, Think we’ll have too much for them and will keep a much needed clean sheet so 0 - 2. As ever though will be happy with a point away.
That looks a pretty strong team for a club with so many first team players out, the squad is shaping up nicely, and baring complacency, I can see three points as a distinct possibility. 0-2 On the Bradford fire, on wed 19th of Sept BBC radio 4 broadcast a lengthy documentary drama on the fire as told by interviews given by survivors it is a gripping story and for anyone interested it is still available it is called "The 56" and well worth a listen.
Squad game isn’t it. I don’t think we missed him midweek. It’s the team I expected to be honest. Only one I’m not certain about us Janes. He looks a little “rabbit in the headlights” sometimes.
