Sunderland welcome QPR to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland lost at Southampton and QPR lost to Middlesbrough. The Black Cats dropped to 12th place and are 8 points ahead of 20th placed QPR. Mike Dodds will be without his captain Luke O’Nien once more, Dan Ballard and Naz Rusyn are both out after picking up injuries at Southampton. Jensen Seelt also picked up a knee injury and is out for the season. Corry Evans is back in training with Dack and Alese not far away from a return but probably after the International break.However, Clarke, Cirkin, Huggins, Roberts and Embleton remain on the injured list. QPR fell to a 2-0 home defeat after Middlesbrough scored 2 second half goals, only their second defeat in their last 10 games. The Hoops have been in great form recently including winning 3 of their last 4 away games at Blackburn, Bristol City and even Leicester. Jack Colback returns to the Stadium of Light where he spent 6 years with the Black Cats. Mike Dodds: "The fans will stick with us if we give them what they want, which is 11 players giving everything. "I think all four goals were avoidable but on the flipside I've seen a team on Tuesday night go toe-to-toe with a Premier League team in-waiting in Leicester and Southampton will see themselves the same way. "Not only did we go toe-to-toe with them but we bettered them in spells. "It's been a difficult period in terms of injuries suspensions and fixtures but, as I said to the players, nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We have to keep doing what we are doing and believing in what we believe in and eventually that will stop. "Marti Cifuentes: "Trust me, I don't need a defeat to have a reality check. It's a really difficult situation. I'm convinced that we're going to manage to reach the target, but if anyone thought it was easy they were making a big mistake. "I'm not a magician. I'm here to help. But to expect we're going to win every game is delusional. It's going to be tough. We have a sad feeling because it's true that we had big expectations about this game and we didn't perform - not even close to the last game. "We had a very demanding game on Wednesday, emotionally and physically, and Middlesbrough played 60 minutes against 10 men against Norwich, so perhaps that's one of the reasons they looked more energetic in the second half. "It's very demanding when you have three games in just a few days and especially when you have Leicester away and West Brom." Form: Match Appointments: Referee: OLIVER LANGFORD Assistant Referees: Hristo Karaivanov & Michael Webb Fourth Official: Matt Corlett Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Styles, Hjelde, Hume, Pembele, Jobe, Neil, Rigg, Mundle, Aouchiche, Hemir. Subs: Bishop, Burstow, Bell, Ekwah, Lavery, Kelly, Ba, Fieldson. Injured: Huggins, Cirkin, Evans, Dack, Alese, Embleton, Roberts, Clarke, Seelt, Ballard, Rusyn. Unavailable: O’Nien QPR (4-2-3-1) Begovic, Dunne, Cook, Clarke-Salter, Paal, Colback, Field, Willock, Andersen, Chair, Frey. Subs: Dykes, Smyth, Hayden, Fox, Hodge, Cannon, Larkeche, Armstrong, Walsh Injured: Kolli Betting Odds: Sunderland 7/5 QPR 2/1 Draw 11/5 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: Around this time last year we had just suffered our worst performance of the season, the 5-1 defeat at home to Alex Neil’s Stoke. We had 49 points with 11 to play. Some people were calling for Uncle Tony to be sacked after that game. Back to this season and after yet another defeat on the road we really need a win here. QPR have picked up of late but if we setup properly and play for the full 90, we should have enough. If not, then it’s going to be a horrible International break. I’m going for a 1-0 home win. Live Stream: Available to overseas fans https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Press conference: Ha’way the Lads
I'm sitting on the fence and going for a draw. If we win, I'll be going mental. If we don't, the international break should hold us in good stead for Cardiff away Good Friday... now then, that would be a good reason to go to church...
Fantastic thread again RTB. Thank you very much for your continued efforts. Due to the injury situation, that team almost picks itself, although I would prefer Aouchiche in a more central role, where he's more effective. We could go with Hemir up top, flanked by Rusyn and Mundle, with Aouchiche in behind. If Dodds doesn't fancy Pembele, and no coach has so far, then we could play Ba at RB. Scout did say that he saw him playing RWB for France, so it's not alien to him. Whatever team he picks, I think attack is probably our best line of defence, as we seem incapable of keeping a clean sheet anyway. So, why not go for it. I'm going for a tight 3-2 to the Lads, which will make us all breath a little easier.
While I want the lads to win as always, our soft underbelly isn't a secret and QPR will be looking for all three points to move them up the table. Our makeshift back four, no holding midfielder and the obvious lack of a goal scoring striker points to one thing for me, another defeat. Very much hope I'm wrong.
Think I feel a little more upbeat than most which is probably a bit of last season hanging around as when our backs were to the wall we tended to show up and turn somebody over.
Home win. And how the **** have we sold over 38800 home tickets after the run we’ve been on. Incredible support.
If they had any sense they would delay it and announce the new coach, for some optimism, but lets just stick with dreary Dodds
They won't be able to. Sure the first payment is due out on May 1st. So they will want a win to have some positivity then the email will come out. They will have an absolute deadline that, they will have to send by though. Probably getting close to it.
Its probably too complicated for the ****ers down there, but it easy to do, just inform people 10 working days before the payment is going to be taken, its not rocket science
Cant see us winning this one unless ballard is fit (which seems unlikely) If we can somehow get the 3 points i think we will have an ok end of the season Hopefully adil n rusyn both start, dodds cant complicate things again. Play 1 formation n stick to it - hate when he does 1 formation in possession and 1 out of it
