Sunderland host Rotherham in the Skybet League One. Last time out Sunderland beat Cambridge and Rotherham beat Oxford Sunderland thrashed Cambridge 5-1 with what Alex Neil described as the best performance of the season. The visitors were reduced to 10 men after 12 minutes when Ross Stewart was brought down in the penalty area as he was through on goal. Dennis Cirkin and Carl Winchester are both unavailable due to injury, but Callum Doyle made a solid return to the first team and is expected to replace Winchester. Rotherham came back from a goal down to claim a vital 3 points with a 2-1 win at home to Oxford United with Dan Barlaser making amends from the penalty spot after conceding an own goal in the first half. The Millers are 6 points ahead of the Black cats and have a superior goal difference of 10 more goals. Alex Neil: "We moved the ball really well and we had a clear plan in terms of how we wanted to play the game, and the lads carried it out magnificently. We could have scored double figures if I'm honest, with the amount of chances that we had. "There were numerous excellent performances across the pitch and a real highlight was our professionalism in the second half, in terms of not giving them any opportunities, starving them of the ball. Don't risk it and just keep rotating it, the chances will come and we'll get more goals, which is exactly what we did. I'd probably say that this was our best performance, and I know that people will say it was against ten men, but how often have we seen games against ten men where it becomes really difficult, and the ten men maybe get a bit of momentum? Today, from minute one, we literally took the game away from them. I thought that it was a penalty, but whether it was a sending off or not, it's up to the referee really. I don't think that the rules are really clear for anyone. "My understanding is that you don't want double jeopardy and give a penalty and a sending off, but then it happens, and if it was against my team I would naturally be upset, but I'm pretty certain that there will be a referee listening who will say 'no, you're wrong, the rules are now this' "I thought that it was a penalty, but I thought that it was harsh that their lad got sent off as well. We played a 3-5-2 but we bumped the two wingbacks up and flooded their backline with a front four, which meant that they were man-for-man. "When you get down the sides with the centre-forwards, you can work outside the full-backs and get balls in the box. That was the gameplan but it is risky because if the ball turns over too much, their wingers are playing the wrong side of you and they can hurt you the other way. I thought that we needed to throw caution to the wind in this game, we needed to be aggressive with our approach because we needed to win the game and try to score as many goals as we could, and it worked really well." "He's (Winchester) hurt his groin, that's all that I can really tell you, but the extent of it I'm not quite sure." Paul Warne: "As always, when a game has that feeling of must-win and you go a goal down, you might as well go a goal down early as opposed to after 70. "I was a little bit surprised how Oxford played; they were a little bit more direct than I was expecting. We were just over aroused; sometimes you so badly want something. They wanted it too much and sometimes, it clouds your judgment. "There were times when we couldn't pick a pass as we were tight, and times when we had a chance to cross it and didn't. I just thought that the goal at half-time settled us down and it was a great goal. I didn't think that our performance was that bad in the first half, but it was nervy. "I give the lads five minutes in the dressing room before I go in (at half-time) and I could hear them, and they were bouncing in there thinking: 'we are right back in this, come on.' "It gave them an opportunity and at half-time, my team talk completely changed and we just went full positive on them. I said: 'Look, if you are going to fail, fail being brave and fail trying to do the right thing. Don't fail by tightening up as you will live with regret if you do that. I just thought that there was a time when one of my players kicked the ball out of play, not intentionally as he has been unbelievable, but as a team you need everyone else to clap him and say: 'that's fine, come on, come on.' Not look at your boots and think it is not going to be our day. You have to be brave to win football matches and I thought that we were with our second-half performance." Match Appointments: Referee: ROBERT MADLEY Assistant Referees: Hristo Karaivanov and Robert Atkin Fourth Official: Ross Joyce Team Line ups Sunderland: (3-5-2) Patterson; Doyle, Batth, Wright; Roberts, O’Nien, Evans, Embleton, Gooch; Broadhead, Stewart. Subs: Hoffmann, Hume, Xhemajli, Matete, Neil, Pritchard, Clarke Injured: Dajaku, Willis, Huggins, McGeady. Rotherham: (3-4-2-1) Johansson, Edmonds-Green, Wood, Ihiekwe, Harding, Rathbone, Barlaser, Osei-Tutu, Ogbene, Wiles, Smith Subs: Mattock, Kelly, Bola, Lindsay, Kayode, Odoffin, Chapman Injured: Grigg, Miller Betting Odds: Sunderland 13/10 Rotherham 2/1 Draw 11/5 Team Characteristics: Remaining Fixtures: Rotherham Sunderland(A); Gillingham(A) Sunderland: Rotherham(H); Morecambe(A) Sheff Wed: Fleetwood(A); Portsmouth(H) MK Dons: Plymouth(A) Plymouth: MK Dons(H) Wycombe: Burton(A) My two pence: A great result and an excellent team performance against Cambridge, and we really should have scored a lot more goals (28 shots 11 on target) I was really hoping that Oxford would do us a favour at Rotherham, but they failed to take any points. If only we could have capitalised on some of our recent fixtures (Charlton, Lincoln, Plymouth) not to mention the poor results before Alex Neil took charge. I’m still hoping that we can get another good result to improve the goal difference. Another 5-1 would be perfect. Rotherham are as unpredictable as us so I’m going for a 2-1 home win. Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Please god a repeat of Saturday please And as much commitment as @RTB to his match day threads please. Another fantastic effort
HA'WAY THE LADS MACKEMS ATTACKEM. Another nail biting, heart stopping end to the season. Who would be a Sunderland supporter ? Well we all would because we love us lol. And we are the best regardless of whether we go up or not. I predicted us garn up this season and I'm sticking with it. Thanks for the match day threads @RTB top man. Coooomon.
I thought you used to put pics of, er, nice females, who come from whoever we were playing? Maybe have the wrong poster, apologies if so.
Got to be careful giving these free kick and corners. They bypass the centre with their crosses and aim for a player peeling off at the back post usually Smith, they've scored loads of goals like that. Our record against them is good apart from the 1-5 earlier this season which no one saw coming. Get at them, repeat Saturday's performance and we'll be ok, if ever we needed back to back home wins now is the time. HTL. Great thread again RTB, will miss these during the summer.
Thanks RTB I agree he is likely to go with the same starting 11. Another team who are ahead of us in the table by 6 points and 10 better GD. We probably cannot overtake them but they need points but we do more! We probably cannot reckon on an early red card and penalty. We can still win.
Are you a member of Parliament by any chance, as apparently 50+ of them are up before the beak for sexual harassment?
I would happily go with the team posted in yet another superb effort from the one and only RTB , Sgt Pepper just emerged there very appropriate maybe, we cant top the charts, but we are hoping to enjoy the show and 3 precious points. OaU.
