Sunderland visit Walsall in League One Last time out Sunderland drew with Wycombe and Walsall drew at Fleetwood. The Black Cats travel to the Banks’s (Bescot) Stadium to play the Saddlers. Watmore, Wyke, Robson, Hume and Cattermole are all unavailable through injury, but they are making progress. It also emerged that Cattermole will miss the next 3 games to help his recovery from a foot injury. Walsall tend to play well against the top teams, but they have been on a bad run lately with only one win in their last six games. Jack Ross: “Lee remains out and the earliest he will come back is post-Walsall in the FA Cup,” said Ross. “He picked up an injury against Shrewsbury and played against Doncaster and Southend, and maybe in hindsight it made things a little bit worse.” “It’s frustrating for both of us because he’s having a good season. It’s just a foot problem – I don’t want to say straightforward because it’s not – and it’s one of those that can be a little more troublesome to settle, but it’s nothing complicated.” “We’ve also had a couple of niggles this week with Dylan McGeouch, Chris Maguire and Jerome Sinclair, so we’ll have to see how they are today and tomorrow. “We still have some longer-term ones like Ethan Robson and Charlie Wyke, and Duncan Watmore will play in an under-23 game at the start of next week.” Dean Keates: “We don’t need to worry about anybody else. We will go about our business and make sure that we are ready for the weekend and we will go from there." “Sunderland have suffered back-to-back relegations, but they are on the front foot at the moment and they are going to be the favourites to win the division, and rightly so because of the size of the club and the budget that they have.” “It is going to be a test for us, but it is one that we are looking forward to. “They’re a good team and they are a massive club. Like I have said, they are in this division for a reason. It’ll be a big test for us as a football club, but one that we are certainly looking forward to.” Match Appointments: Referee: Craig Hicks Assistants: Kevin Morris & Steven Plane Fourth Official: Ollie Yates Team Line ups Sunderland: McLaughlin, Matthews, Flanagan, Baldwin, James, Honeyman (c), Power, Gooch, McGeady, Maguire, Maja Subs: Ruiter, Loovens, Oviedo, O’Nien, Mumba, McGeouch, Sinclair Injured: Watmore, Wyke, Hume, Robson, Cattermole, Love Walsall: L Roberts; Devlin, Martin, Guthrie, Leahy; Ismail, Kinsella, Dobson, Ginnelly; Gordon, Cook. Subs: Dunn, Fitzwater, Johnson, Wilson, Ronan, Ferrier, Morris. Injured: tbc Betting Odds: H 31/11 A 9/8 D 5/2 My two pence: Back on the road, lessons learnt from last week, Maja is our best striker, we need someone to boss the midfield, we can't win them all. My guess is a 2-1 away win. Ha’way the Lads
Every single manager mentions the size of our budget!! We’ve spent nxt to **** all getting a whole new team man. Anyway great thread and I think we will get back to winning ways this wknd haway the lads.
Opposition managers love getting that excuse in early don't they. Really looking forward to this, our away support has been first class and the games like going back to the 80's. The home atmosphere is better, like every game is an FA Cup tie. No reason we can't win this and, after last week, we need 3 points to keep the momentum going. Sinclair needs to start chipping in, he does lots of good work but he should be imposing himself more. I think this will be a very tight game, 1-0 Sinclair just after Ross's half time team talk.
Like the team you put up. If I were to tinker with it - I would pair Mc Geuoch with Power in the middle, replace McGeady with Honeyman. This will give Power a little bit more freedom. Use McGeady as an impact sub. I know I’ll have to put on my tin helmet but for me all things being equal the three behind a lone striker is:- Maguire. Honeyman. Gooch. All with the relatively free roll that for me is the best formation - I reiterate ‘at this moment in time’. KTF
Same here, lots of running, link up play and performances you can rely on from game to game. McGeady is the best player in the league ability wise but I'd use him as an impact sub, I prefer Maguire for our flair player he works harder and is more consistent.
On the ALS website their fan who was previewing the match said Walsall don't do well against quick nippy forwards and we have plenty of them with midfield as a back up. Let's hope he's right.
I am not particularly confident with this and the Barnsley match. I would take 1 win from 2 now. Hope I'm wrong obviously and we win both.
win and win for me, Barnsley won't match Wycombe's performance in fact if we play like we did in the 2nd half last week we will win both games and hopefully be on 42 points next Tuesday night with Barnsley on 37.
Should be no reason why we can't win the next two matches.....we are the best team in the league....simple.
I'd be happy to see Oviedo playing further up on the left if we have players missing. The lad, at left back, deserves to keep his place imo, he sticks to his job and likes getting up the pitch when he can. I think they'd work well together.
As ever will be happy with a draw away but expecting a win. Think last week we were a little off the tempo required to win games but Ross will use that to spur them on. Would be tempted to drop Maguire in favour of McGeady if it’s one or the other. I’m not a big fan of McGeady but he’s done well last few games and I thought Maguire was poor, by the standard he’s set himself, last week. Hopefully Baldwin’s distribution will improve this week as well. Well done as ever to the travelling hordes - truly amazing!
