Sunderland welcome Hull City to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland lost at Ipswich and Hull lost at home to Norwich. (Hull played Birmingham in FA cup on Tuesday and lost 2-1 after fielding their reserve squad) The Black Cats are in 7th place and will be looking for 3 points to keep in touch with the race for the play-off places. Michael Beale played Jobe up front instead of Rusyn against Ipswich and started with Ba on the right wing. Jay Matete could feature after being named in the matchday squad for the first time since his return from injury. Dennis Cirkin and Bradley Dack (hamstring) remain sidelined together with Long-term absentees Niall Huggins (knee) and Corry Evans (knee). Elliot Embleton is back on the grass after a serious muscle injury. The Tigers were unfortunate to lose a game in which they dominated possession and created lots of chances but were only able to convert one of them into goals, losing 2-1 at home with goals from Jonathan Rowe and Christian Fassnacht for the Canaries. Top scorer Aaron Connolly was replaced by Billy Sharp after being flattened by the Norwich keeper and is unlikely to play. Burnley have recalled Scott Twine from his loan with Hull. Other strikers Delap and Philogene are both sidelined due to injury. Hull remain in 9th place, one point behind Sunderland. Mick Beale: "It's really naive from us, it's a poor free-kick to give away. The boy was facing away to the stand, and then the smallest player on the pitch gets a free header for the goal. "We're bitterly disappointed because we come away from home, go 1-0 up and playing well in the game albeit a bit sloppy at times and causing Ipswich problems. They're a good side but we've more than matched them. "We had enough chances tonight to win that game. I'm really disappointed. "You can't control an opponent through the whole game but for the most part we gave them as many problems as we got back. In one sloppy moment we've thrown away three points." Liam Rosenior: "The outcome was the same as it has been in a lot of games we've played - dominate, dominate, don't score, one moment [from them], they score. "We have to take the dominance and turn it into goals and results, but in terms of the players' engagement, commitment to the shirt, their pressing and energy - they [Norwich] couldn't get out of their half in the second half. "There are lots of positives, but we need to start taking advantage of these games. It's really hard to put my finger on it because 80%, 90% of our play is so good. "We've got 19 games left, we're a point outside the play-offs, we're still in a good position but we have to find a way to be more ruthless." Match Appointments: Referee: ROBERT JONES Assistant Referees: Ian Hussin and Wade Smith Fourth Official: Keith Stroud Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Alese, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Neil, Ekwah, Ba, Clarke, Pritchard Rusyn. Subs: Bishop, Pembele, Seelt, Mayenda, Aouchiche, Matete, Rigg, Jobe, Bennette. Injured: Evans, Cirkin, Huggins, Dack, Roberts Hull (4-2-3-1) Allsop, Coyle, Jones, Greaves, Jacob, Morton, Slater, Tufan, Carvalho, Lokilo, Sharp. Subs: Ingram, McLoughlin, Docherty, Vaughan, Furlong, Smith, Sellars-Fleming, Allahyah, Ashbee Injured: Connolly, Delap, Philogene, Vinagre, Sinik Unavailable: Traore, Seri Betting Odds: Sunderland 5/6 Hull 3/1 Draw 11/4 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: Another tough game against another side with ambitions of reaching the play-offs, Hull gave us a good game on Boxing day. Three of their top scorers are injured but they do still have Tufan, Carvalho and Billy Sharp. Hopefully we can get a similar result in front of our home fans. I’m going for a 1-0 home win Live Stream: This game is live on Sky Sports Football from 7:30pm Available to overseas fans from 7:15 https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Press conference: Ha’way the Lads
Another very important game. Surprised to see Hull better than 3/1 at some bookies. It’ll be a really tight match I reckon, just hope we can snatch a win and temporarily move into the play-offs.
Haway the match thread. Thank you @RTB I'd like to see us playing at a much higher tempo and really get after them, I'm sure we would look better for it. Hoping to be back from working away to go, but depends on flights and if I can shake this bloody chest infection. Haway the lads
Dare I say it's a while since we lost to these mainly sharing the points until our recent encounter. Jury still out with how were playing under our new manager, a couple of tweaks could make a huge difference but has MB those tweaks in him, hoping for 3 points and a clean sheet. Great thread RTB.
Philogene likely back for this one, albeit on the bench Remembering back to the crazy 4-4 last season and hoping for a calmer night 1-1 or 2-1 to us.
If he plays Jobe up front, we don't win then he comes out with the "we did play a striker, we played Jobe" **** again then he's starting to lose me
I agree, Graham is a good lad, but he is rarely positive with his score predictions, I met him before the Preston home game, travels from Scotland for loads of games. Unfortunately I think its still the fa cup game carry on and result hangover. We need a decent performance to shake people out of it
Only three points is good enough and I think we'll go for it. Ba and Hume will play a big part, imo, and help pull their defence around. Teams are doubling up on Clarke so we need movement from Rusyn and the right side. Pritchard will worry their central defenders because they either close him down or risk him shooting or threading passes down the channels. We need to mix things up and I think we will, 2-0, Rusyn double.
losing the plot? I lost my car at Asda yesterday . When I found it I couldnt figure out why the remote wasnt working, the silver estate car I was trying to get into was a ford, mine is a vauxhall
Morning everyone and thanks RTG for another great summary. I'm hoping Beale shakes it up a bit, he reckons he used to watch our games even before Uncle Tony was shoved out of the door. He must have more of an idea of what the players are capable of by now. I'm going for a 2-0 home win with Rusyn to get them both " that's if he starts " Thermals out for you hardy soles who are brave enough to venture out to the stadium on Friday evening .
Great thread @RTB Im fully expecting a win here. He has to start with a striker IMHO. Im going 2-0 to the lads Hawaaaaaay
