Match Day Thread Burnley FC v Sunderland AFC – Friday 31st March 2023 - KO 20:00

Sunderland travel to Championship leaders Burnley.
Last time out Sunderland drew with Luton and Burnley lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup.
The international break saw seven Sunderland first teamers join up their international squads. Jewison Bennette suffered a dislocated shoulder while preparing for the Costa Rica game against Panama and will not play for the rest of the season.
Defender Dan Ballard was substituted in Northern Ireland’s defeat to Finland with a suspected hamstring injury and is facing 2 to 3 weeks out of action.
Dennis Cirkin is expected to make his return to the squad but Niall Huggins is close but not quite ready.
Erling Haaland scored his second hat-trick in five days as Manchester City cruised into the FA Cup semi-finals by hammering Burnley 6-0 at Etihad Stadium. At the end Kompany shook hands with all the City players who were his team-mates not that long ago. He stood with fellow Belgian Kevin de Bruyne for a quiet word, possibly congratulating him for the superb pass that released Alvarez for his second, having already laid his first on a plate with a precise cross.
Kompany knows his side come up against nothing like that quality in the Championship, but it does seem likely he will be back next season - when he hopes some harsh lessons will have been learned.
Burnley had 13 players on international duty over the international break representing their native countries across the globe.
Tony Mowbray:
"I have to be careful not be overly critical of this inexperienced group. But it seemed a bit pedantic, a bit slow [in the first half]. We were not looking forward enough and were a bit slow at the back but you have to give young players belief.
"Ultimately it was the substitutions that gave us a spark and energy to push on. So I think they are doing great. Luton was a team that are fourth in the league and we more than matched them. We are not far away. We have the nucleus of an exciting team."
“We’ve got players away with Northern Ireland, Ivory Coast, France Under-20s, and Patto’s obviously going away with England Under-21s,”
“I think we’ll have seven away who are generally in our team, so we won’t be able to spend the next two weeks preparing for Burnley on the grass. We’ll probably have one day to work with them – two for some and one for others – but we’ll just have to go and be positive and play our game, like we did at Fulham in the FA Cup and against Norwich last week.”
“To be honest, we should be looking forward to playing Burnley after the way we’ve been playing, we have to be aggressive, be on the front foot, and test them out. Then, if they beat us, they beat us.”
Vincent Kompany:
“These guys work hard, they keep their heads up all the time and yes we got seriously beat today, but I hope we will react to this - not just brush it aside but use it as motivation to get better.
“It doesn’t mean that these games are ever easy to win, but there’s got to be a way to get better, to come closer, to find a way.
“I want to play these games again and again until it works, until we succeed, but we’ve got to get better first.”
He added: “If I look back at the first half, I would have signed up for, not the result but the kind of flow of the game, there wasn’t any real momentum for the opposition team.
“Look, it wasn’t easy for us either but I think definitely, it was a good away performance in a very difficult venue.
“Then the second half, and this is what they do, they have a little bit of time to adapt and just the quality of the players, the quality of the coaches, so many things that made it difficult to stay in the game in the second half.”

Match Appointments:
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Assistant Referees: Derek Eaton & Natalie Aspinall
Fourth Official: John Busby

Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Cirkin, Neil, Michut, Ba, Clarke, Gelhardt, Roberts.

Subs: Bass, Ekwah, Pritchard, Lihadji, Gooch, Amad, Anderson
Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Ballard, Alese, Bennette

Burnley (4-2-3-1) Peacock-Farrell, Roberts, Al Dakhil, Beyer, Maatsen, Cullen, Gudmundsson, Tella, da Silva, Zaroury, Barnes
Subs: Taylor, Cork, Twine, Bastien, Dervisoglu, Obafemi, Muric
Injured: tbc

Betting Odds:
Sunderland 31/20 Burnley 17/10 Draw 23/10

Prutton Predicts: 2-0

My two pence:
Burnley are in good form and are top of the league by some margin and were probably the best team that we played at home this season. This is going to be another tough game especially after the international break, given that we have had 7 first teamers away and now have 2 less to chose from.
I’m going for a 2-2 draw
Live Stream:
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Ha’way the Lads

 

****’s getting real.

Sterling work, RTB, thank you.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if we pulled a result out of the bag.

 

that would be really nice

 

unfortunately no matter how hard i try i keep seeing sense and say no way, however with Sunderland we always have a chance of pulling something out of the bag when we click, form tells us they are cert for promotion and without Ross for this one its just too much to ask.

Cracking thread again RTB you have worked magic again for your match threads thank you

 

Brilliant thread again @RTB thanks for taking the time.
I think we will give this a right good go but they will have a little bit too much for us unfortunately.

 

Id drop Joffy for Amad.

 

Great summary RTB. Decent bench for us, but let’s see if we can give them a game. Gutted re Ballard & Jewi, but a good test for the rest.

 

Can't wait for this game, should be a cracker with both teams going for it with nothing to lose ...

... no reason we can't win so I'm going 3-2 to Sunderland and a great night for our supporters down there.

Haway Lads!!!

 

RTB
Great to be back after the break...

Pity we have even more injuries.. grrr..

Another home game, that is televised, against run away league leaders.

Frankly we have nothing to lose, so its siht or bust.

I think the team you have suggested are all our fit players... so no argument for me.

No hiding behind the sofa anyone!!!

 

Love a Friday night game. Me and a few of the lads heading down early afternoon, mate driving. Very tough game and I’d be over the moon with a point…

 

Don't turn up at the SOL marra.

 

2-1 Unfortunately

Bart

 

I have a theory which this game will put to the test.
When the home team ie Burnley win the away fixture ie 4-2 at the SOL then it's rare they win the home fixture doing a double.
We did it recently against Stoke, and its amazing how often that happens.
What that means to me is we've every chance of getting a result here, these lads never give up and the added injuries will just spur them on, I'd take a point all day long. HTL.

 

I like your style!

 

I was thinking that. It might help Joffy, and let him have a run after an hour or so. He's been improving IMO, but playing without a nine is something we did pretty well at times before Christmas.

Take anything down there mind. They've really surprised me, but they are bloody good when they get going.

 

Agree, it should be a game worth watching, as long as they don't get an early goal. They seem to keep going once they do, so hopefully we'll get it.

 

Yep,they are. That second half of our home match,they took us apart. We're going to have to be on it to get anything.
Mind you,when we're on it,we're good,and we'll cause them some problems.

 

Great thread RTB - thank you

I would love a result down there - a nailbiting 1-0 would do; head is telling me to get a grip unfortunately.

Hawaaaaaaaay