Sunderland host Luton Town at the Stadium of Light in the Championship Last time out Sunderland lost to Sheffield United and Luton beat Bristol City. Amad Diallo and Alex Pritchard both missed the last two games due to injury but could be set for a return. Luke O’Nien had to be replaced after a bad tackle but he should be OK. Cirkin and Huggins are unlikely to feature. Aji Alise, Embleton, Stewart & Evans are all out for the season. Luton continued their promotion push in the Championship with a win over Bristol City at Kenilworth Road. Carlton Morris' 16th goal of the season secured the Hatters a third consecutive victory and left them fourth, seven points off second-placed Sheffield United. Morris struck after just five minutes when Cody Drameh's brilliantly drilled cross from the right was perfect for the striker to head home. Tony Mowbray: “Luke O’Nien should be alright, but a few didn’t train today. There will be a few coming back tomorrow, however Amad trained today, so there’s a positive for us. Ever since I first walked in here we’ve got different challenges in different positions, with the players that are not available. You’ll see when the team sheet comes, and you will think “why is he not playing”, well it’s probably not for me to tell you the day before. You will just have to assess by the team sheet, when it comes in. But yeah, as always we’ve got some challenges, but we’ll give it our best shot and hopefully be competitive in the game.” “Generally the injuries we’ve got are long term injuries, so I don’t sit here and think that we will have three or four players back after the international break, because we won’t. As I’ve been saying that these games are individual events, that we have to turn up and compete in and show that we are ready for. We have seven or eight players going away for international break, we had sixteen today, so we’ll have to bring up some of the academy players to have a ten vs ten match. There will only be eighteen training, so we will work with the individuals, and work on their strengths. We are here to try and improve the players, and at international breaks you haven’t got all your team.” Rob Edwards: "I thought the performance in the first half was excellent. "We were on the front foot, we were a real threat, created big chances, and everything that we want to be, we were. "They remained a threat on the counter-attack and we had to manage that but I thought the first half was pretty much one-way traffic. "As we all know, two halves of football are never exactly the same and then when we didn't get that second goal, they can gain a little bit of confidence and belief from that, and then we all know we've got to make sure that we see the game out. "We still had a couple of big chances in the second half, great save from Carlton's header and we got into some good areas, but as a team we defend really, really well, and we had to show that at the end of the game." Match Appointments: Referee: SCOTT OLDHAM Assistant Referees: Philip Dermott and Mark Stevens Fourth Official: Stephen Martin Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (3-5-2) Patterson, Hume, Batth, Ballard, Gooch, Neil, Michut, Ba, Clarke, Gelhardt, Amad. Subs: Bass, Ekwah, Pritchard, Lihadji, Bennette, Roberts, Anderson Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Cirkin, Alese Luton Town (3-4-1-2) Horvath, Osho, Lockyer, Bell, Drameh, Nakamba, Berry, Doughty, Adebayo, Campbell, Morris. Subs: Shea, Woodrow, Lansbury, Burke, Watson, Onyedinma, Taylor Injured: Clarke, Ruddock Mpanzu, Potts, Walton, Freeman. Betting Odds: Sunderland 31/20 Luton 17/10 Draw 23/10 Prutton Predicts: 0-1 My two pence: Luton are in good form and have the second best away record in the division. This is going to be another tough game, however I think they play the game the way that we like to play. They don’t score many but also don’t concede that many either. I’m going for a 2-0 home win Live Stream: https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video (Away fans only) Ha’way the Lads
Off we go again, past games have been tight with 1-1 prominent and this could go the same way. Wonder if the officials are being sponsored by the RNIB like their mates cos if they're not we could just pinch this one HTL.
Tough game. Would take a point, but always hopeful from this bunch of lads. Looking forward to it. The bairns match is now at home at 10am instead of away at Chester Le Street so we should be back and out for it nice and early. HTL
I'm really looking forward to this game although I can't now make it. It's fascinating watching how, despite a serious injury crisis, we've approached games against very different styles. Look at the current injuries RTB has posted, all key players. I was proud of the team, on Wednesday, and thought it admirable that such a scratch team put up such a fight against a team heading for the PL, providing they have referees as their lucky charm. No reason we can't beat Luton and I'll be expecting another performance to be proud of.
I'm delighted that this is the standard, these lads will put a shift in, win lose or draw. Luton are a very good side and it will be a tough game. Sheffield Utd were a good physical side. Im not sure on Lutons style of play or how they line up tbh. Roll on Saturday imo.
Think we’ll get beat, again. Physical side Luton and we’re weak as piss. This team has surprised me many times in recent months though, hopefully that’s the case again tomorrow.
RTB A win of course Although Sheffield looked the better side for most of the match, they only won cos of an officials mistake and we hit the post.. the gods were against us at home (again). Depending on who is fit or not your side and formation looks okay. I presume we are out of the play-off places now and are just playing for fun. Us to win by two goals. Gelhardt needs somebody up there with him... we will never know if a partnership with Stewart would have worked well. The summer transfer window is doubly important for us cos atm,as we all know we are not playing with a full deck.
Thanks. I've had some nice things said about me on this board, but that tops it all off I was of course joking.................. .............I get the team news as I leave the house. I'll just not bother driving over
Great thread as usual RTB Praying for a win. But heart says a draw - its difficult for the youngish lads to pick themselves up when we've just lost 4 out of 5. Time for TM and his staff to do another aspect of their jobs, which is getting the players rallied when the chips are down. Still expecting a good performance and another step up the learning curve Hawaaaaaaay
Great thread as per usual RTB, I like your team selection and formation , the only suggestion I could make, is to give Jewi a start up front alongside Joffy and tell Jewi to fall no further back than the half way line no matter what and let Joffy fall back only if required. Keeping back Amad and Roberts to come on later (earlier that 80 minutes Tony if you are reading this ) to terrorise the Luton defence as only they know how. OaU.
Great thread again RTB. Love them to bits! Another difficult encounter, but I expect us to play with a bit of freedom. We were very open to the counter attack on Wednesday and I would like us to tighten things up in that department. If O'Nien is fit, I'd stick him in a back 3, with Hume and Clarke as wingbacks, add Gooch to our midfield of Neil and Michut, with Ba and Joffy running the channels to allow us to get out more. Really hoping for a win, but a point would not be a disaster. We do need to keep the points ticking over though.
Great thread as always. I would like to see Pritchard back in, maybe alongside Gelhardt. Would like to see Bennette get a chance as well. I think he will need some games before the end of the season to see where he might need to be next season. Might also be a chance for Anderson to come in at left back where he has played before.
