Sunderland travel to Blackpool in the SkyBet League One. Last time out Sunderland lost to Wigan and Blackpool drew with Accrington. Sunderland failed to take advantage of their game in hand and are now reliant on one of the top two slipping up if they are to move into an automatic promotion place. Dion Sanderson is not expected to be involved in Saturday’s crucial game against promotion rivals Blackpool. It is feared the issue could take a few weeks to resolve, placing a question mark over Sanderson’s availability for all six of the Wearsiders’ remaining matches plus any future play-off games. Connor McLaughlin missed the Wigan game due to an injury during the warm up, he will also be out for a few weeks after undergoing surgery on a hernia. Blackpool have drawn their last two but remain unbeaten in their last 14 games. The Seasiders are in 5th place with 65 points. Elliot Embleton is not available for selection against his parent club. Ethan Robson sat out the last game, but could be in the starting 11. Lee Johnson: “Obviously, goals change games and it’s been another scenario where we haven’t defended a set-play. In the last ten games or so, there’s been too many of those. It’s disappointing because you can’t keep giving teams a leg-up, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we deserved it today.” "Even in the first half-hour where we were fluid on the ball, our off-the-ball connection and distances were always going to play into the hands of any opposition, let alone Wigan who are on good form, which allowed them to create space. "Five or six games ago, we weren’t conceding any shots on target because of our solidness. Now, we’re probably chasing it a little bit early, with the thought of going into the top two, and that then leaves us open to being exposed. "We’ve got to hold our hands up and say, ‘Look, we weren’t good enough, it’s as simple as that. They deserved to win’. It was probably balanced in the middle part of the pitch, but in both boxes, they were better than us." Neil Critchley: “We were discussing it. You’re looking at Ethan (Robson), he can maybe come on and get a goal, you’ve got Demi and young Brad Holmes, but I just felt in the last 15 minutes we started to get on top and Sullay (Kaikai) is a goal threat, he’s scored in the last few games, Elliot (Embleton) started to have more of an influence because the game started to open up and he’s good when he’s in space.” “When you need a goal, you’re always reluctant to take either of your two strikers off and I thought Ellis (Simms) was a handful again, so you don’t want to take either him or Jerry (Yates) off because they’re in good form and scoring goals.” “I didn’t want to take any of those four off because I felt they were likely to do something, but unfortunately they didn’t.” Match Appointments: Referee: TOM NIELD Assistant Referees: Gary Hilton and Matthew Parry Fourth Official: Ben Toner Team Line ups Sunderland: Burge; Power, Wright, O'Nien, McFadzean, Scowen, Leadbitter, Jones, O'Brien, McGeady, Wyke Subs: Matthews, Maguire, Gooch, Diamond, Winchester, Stewart, Hume Injured: Xhemajli, Willis, Flanagan, Sanderson. Blackpool: (4-3-3) Maxwell, Gabriel, Ballard, Gretarsson, Garbutt, Dougall, Ward, Robson, Kaikai, Simms, Yates Subs: Moore, Turton, Husband, Ekpiteta, Mitchell, Holmes Injured: Stewart, Anderson Madine, Virtue, Hamilton. Betting Odds: Sunderland 13/8 Blackpool 17/10 Draw 2/1 My two pence: Two poor results in a week means that automatic promotion is no longer in our hands with 6 games to play. I hope that LJ had someone watching how Accrington made life difficult for the Seasiders, packing the midfield and stifling their build-up play. Some interesting comments from the Blackpool manager about not wanting to make any substitutions, maybe LJ should take note. Too many changes can cause too much confusion. I’m going for a 1-0 away win. As a mark of respect, EFL matches scheduled for 3pm on Saturday, April 17th will be moved to avoid a clash with the funeral of HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Live stream £10 https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
another great thread RTB I really appreciate the time you spend giving all that information, the things you have pointed out in it makes for a few topics like glad Elliot can't play for them, and will Ethan be our downfall as Murphy's law is bound to bite.weak at keeping possession and protecting the lead are there failing traits which is good news.hope we can keep those guys KAIKAI and SIMMS quiet. i'm going for a reserved 2 nil
cheers again RTB... hope LJ can work some magic on the lads, i still don't fear any team but we have to have the right attitude once on the pitch and imho that has been sadly lacking. feels strange saying this but i think we need to drop back to the lads that kept us clean sheets, i really wanted defenders in there but after the last two games we need to do what worked. it aint over till the none body shaming gender neutral person sings but our game needs a drastic improvement to even think about play offs.
Great thread Z.....Just need to get some momentum back with a win. Obviously a set back in the last two games but in reality we were never going to win all our remaining games. The Hull game away will be a big one but let's get three points on Saturday first. Hearts and minds now or as I have said many times faint hearts win f*ck all. Going for a win.....1 - 0....big Charlie to do the business....haway the lads!!!!!!!!!!!!
are you not worried about Ethan Robson mate you know the luck we have with ex players, i'll have my fingers and toes crossed for this one
Not really just got to focus on getting the result....if he scores then we have to score more. We have to take fear out of our game......hearts and minds now.
Great thread as per usual RTB. I'm still glass half full so 0-3 to the lads. Blackpool will miss Embleton
Top work again @RTB. Hopefully the lads have put some work in on the training ground and we can pick up 3 points. Going to be a nervy first 20 minutes though
Would love to be at this one, nowt like a rare weekend in Blackpool, even though it's akin to Beirut now. Was there the weekend it all got stopped, went to watch AFC Flyde play the mighty Aldershot instead, was a bizarre weekend. Anyhoo, I put us down for a draw in the hope of smashing the successive defeats hoodoo. Excellent thread as per norm, big thumbs up from me.
Wow! These posts just get better - Situational Statistics - Brilliant RTB! Noticeable from those Stats that they haven't conceded a goal from a counter attack, which is normally one of our strongest areas. So we may have to have a more patient approach, and use Diamond and McGeady to get to the byline. For that reason, O'Nien needs to play the advanced role in midfield, as he's the best box to box player we've got, and our wide men need options of who to pick out in the box. Jones has been poor since his last injury, so I would have him on the bench for when they start to tire. That's when I would introduce Neil, as he can pick a pass to open them up. I agree with your observation about how Accrington stifled Blackpool by packing the midfield and for that reason, I would go 3-5-2. We need to keep things tight and hope we've done some work over the last few days on defending corners. Burge McLaughlin, Sanderson, Wright Diamond, Winchester/Scowen, O'Nien, Leadbitter, McGeady AOB, Wyke Heart says 0-1. Head says 1-1. I've gone with my head on this occasion and plumped for the draw.
Glad you decided to keep posting these threads @RTB another great thread as usual. After the last couple of games I'm not sure what will happen in the game or which Sunderland will turn up but if they match Blackpool in effort on the pitch we should have enough to win this - fingers crossed
Good on you for still doing the match thread RTB, don't let the knackers grind you down. Tricky game for us, just hoping we go with some fire in our bellies and give a good performance. H'way the lads, let's knock out a tangerine.
The 1st of our remaining “cup finals” and we have to win all of them. Im going for a bum-squeaking 0-1. Whatever happens, we just have to get back on track, SOMEHOW!! Bart
We know how to win cup finals now. It would have been nice to sail on to top two promotion with hardly a hitch. But that would have been boring. So let’s win the next six. Onwards and upwards!
I suppose one thing that LJ has accomplished is that the opposing teams have no idea of what they are coming up against. Like us, we just don’t know which Sunderland team will turn up.