Sunderland travel to Kenilworth Road to face Luton Town in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland won at Hull and Luton beat Watford at home. Sunderland kept an unchanged team at Hull and started the first half well and in control of the game. In the second half, Wilson Isidor latched onto a Dan Neil clearance, ran the whole length of the pitch and coolly dinked the keeper to win the game 1-0. Ballard & Mayenda are doubtful for this game. Browne and Connolly will be looking to start. However, Huggins, Seelt, Samed, Poveda & Abdullahi remain injured. The Hatters, who were 21st and had won just twice in nine league games before kick-off, led at the break thanks to Jordan Clark’s quick thinking, the midfielder diverting a Tom Holmes shot past the Watford keeper. Carlton Morris was left unmarked and headed home Alfie Doughty’s corner from three yards to extend the lead. Jacob Brown added a third with a fine low injury-time strike. Defenders, Burke & Holmes were both replaced due to injury and are doubtful to start on Wednesday. Regis le Bris: "It's difficult to win away, especially at Hull. In the first half, we dominated the ball but failed to break the final third. "The scenario in the second half was different, they kept the ball and it was not easy to deal with the way they build up the game and we did well. "The momentum was with them and they had a big chance to score and they didn't. We were prepared to use our counter attacks as we had that strength and Wilson made the difference." Press conference: Rob Edwards: "It's been a tough start to the season, a tough start for all of us, we've taken a few hits - we've even taken hits during the game today, we lost two more centre-halves. "People don't realise how hard this is at the moment, we finished off with two wing-backs at centre-back, who were incredible. "I don't know where we'll be at for Wednesday but in the here and now, I'll enjoy it for 20 minutes and everyone else can enjoy it for the weekend. "I care about this football club, I'm a fan as well as the manager. I don't like disappointing people and I've felt that this year - but today I felt the love and the passion [from the fans] around the stadium." Match Appointments Referee: TOM NIELD Assistant Referees: Daniel Leach & Matthew Jones Fourth Official: Edward Duckworth Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, Mepham, O’Nien, Hume, Browne, Neil, Jobe, Mundle, Isidor, Roberts Subs: Moore, Hjelde, Johnson, Rigg, Aleksic, Aouchiche, Connolly, Rusyn, Watson. Injured: Huggins, Seelt, Alese, Samed, Abdullahi. Luton (3-4-1-2) Kaminski, Johnson, McGuinness, Hashioka, Moses, Kraub, Clark, Doughty, Chong, Adebayo, Morris. Subs: Brown, Krul, Bell, Walters, Mpanzu, Nakambu, Nelson, Taylor, Woodrow Injured: Burke, Holmes, Mengi, Andersen. Betting Odds: Sunderland 13/10 Luton 9/5 Draw 5/2 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: Luton have had a terrible start this season and are currently in 17th place. Luton will be up for it following their derby win. I'm expecting their usual aggression and reliance on set pieces. With 3 games in a week, we could make a few changes with Ballard, Mayenda, Browne and Connolly all looking to start. I’m going for a 2-0 away win Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/live Available on Sky Sports+ Ha’way the Lads
Nice one @RTB Gutted I’m not going now Just another big game in our season. Come away without defeat and I’ll be delighted Ha’way the lads!
This won't be an easy game, but if they have as many problems in defence as Edwards is alluding to then we need to take advantage. This would be a massive win if we can pull it off, but I would be very happy with a point. Momentum is building - last 2 games have shown our guts and determination - ability to take points without playing out of our skin.
Thanks RTB, amazing as ever! Think we'll pick up some injuries, cards and frustration in this one but with a competent ref can see us winning 2-0. Hope the lads get home unscathed and fit for Oxford mainly though, be happy with a draw and no horrible injuries.
This could be Mepham’s most important game for us imo. O’Nien will be looking forward to this and I believe he’ll be so pleased to have him there. I don’t think we could have a better defence for this game. Hume was excellent at Hull and only pushed out of MOTM by Mepham. I can’t imagine RLB dropping Isidor but Connolly would be the best man for the job on Wednesday in my opinion. If you have to persuade Rigg to take a break this is the game, he’ll understand that Browne has to play at some point. I know people thought I was wrong to suggest we’d play Neil withdrawn into a virtual back five, against Hull, but this is another game that suits it imo. And, with Browne playing close to him there’ll be someone covering any slips. Against Hull, around the 8th minute, Neil gave the ball away with a very weak header. He then intercepted the resulting pass but his first touch was poor and he gave Hull possession that almost resulted in a goal. He had a very good game but it’s moments like those that scare me, it’s when he has players coming onto him and he tries to trick his way past them instead of passing or even just booting it upfield. Browne does that instinctively and we'll need that on Wednesday imo. Watford tried to play football against Luton, in the wrong areas, and lost 3-0 … … we need to avoid that, get the ball forward much quicker than at Hull and play football in their half, not ours. 2-0 with goals from Roberts and Mundle, ‘Ha’way the Lads!!!
TBF have not watched Luton at all this season or last so don't really know what to expect apart from a physical battle and them hitting the ground any chance they get so that they can load the box and deliver a ball in. Think we will need a really strong ref who understands when it is a foul and/or a tactic. That said I also think the way we play out and on the ground will cause them problems and I think I will stick my neck out and say we will get a penalty in this game and am going for a tight 1-2 victory.
I think this will be tougher than Hull, now they have their tails up after the weekend. keep them out, score a couple on the counter and frustrate the hell out of them. Roberts needs to score at some point soon, and we need to get more players into the boox when he has the chance to deliver - I think Browne and Connolly would do that more instinctively. let’s see if RLB changes the line-up a bit. He should do
Tough place to go this, would be tempted to rest rigg for Browne for his experience/work off the ball, will be a physical battle and probably and ugly game, snap your hands off for a point
Tough game despite their league position. I expect Luton to rise up the league after their shakey start. A 3-0 win against Watford will have them on the up. I would also bring Browne in. Mepo was class at Sunday and will have to be again. He covered for 09 many times with the latter diving in and getting no where near the ball. He also went on many runs. That's probably a coach decision but I would potentially rain that in a touch. Once again, the trusty 1-1 away from home is my prediction, frankly I would very happy to get away with a point here.
Apparently Luton have gone back to what worked for them when promoted two years ago, physicality is what they do, dead ball situations to be be avoided as much as possible. Play our best passing game on the deck and we can get a result. Could this be RLBs biggest test? A point is acceptable 3 would be wonderful. Great thread again HTL.
We all know what to expect from Luton and they'll be physical from the start on Wednesday, the most important man on the pitch will be the referee. Dan Neil needs to be is his ear from the start imo. Luton, despite the recent instructions still regularly surround the referee and put pressure on him. As captain Neil needs to be reminding the referee that he's in charge. If you need any indication of what to expect, just look at the 'foul count' from their Watford game ... Luton 22 fouls, Watford 20. To put that into context you'd probably think our game at Hull was a hard fought encounter ... Hull 12 fouls, Sunderland 10. Yes, I know their game was a derby but we had 8 fouls against Boro just for further context.
Another testing away game. On paper. Our lads dont seem bothered by anything on paper though. We seem to have this quiet confidence now in how we setup and our ability to cope with different styles of play. Regis takes credit for that. Mepham too, what a top class player he is and I expect him to be tested organisationally against Luton. I am going to call out Neils captaincy as a part in our calmness too. I know some didnt / dont want him as captain, but I think he needs some credit for his role. He isnt a ranter, but he is assured in his communication and he relys on lads likr Mepham and ONien to help him. I love the way he talks to individuals at pauses in games, particularly the likes of Mundle and Rigg. I have also noticed him and Hume are often discussing things in pauses too. He is also really canny with refs too, I have seen him laugh and smile with them, as well as argue his case calmly. He is learning fast. This is all really positive for a young group, of which he is young too. His overall game is on the up too imo. I dont see any reason to go into the game with anything other than confidence. We know we have a goal or two in us. And we know defensively we are well structured. Another well deserved 1 goal victory may well be the order of the day. Would like to see Roberts get a goal as I thought he got some unfair criticism at Hull. He wasnt great, but he was solid enough and was always an out ball and occupied 2 defenders in the main. I like him but there is no doubt he is a confidence player and a goal right now might just give him that mental boost needed to terrorise sides.
I reckon Edwards has started panicking and will revert back to route 1 bully stuff. Luckily for them we had a weakened team in the play off 2nd leg. Be a battle but we'll be up for it. Browne back in please.
The schedule is tough on us again, a day’s less recovery and having to travel for both games means that Luton, who are having back to back home games, have probably had almost two days longer to prepare. I didn’t see the game but they apparently put a lot into their win over Watford, hopefully that will be a bit of a leveller in terms of recovery.
I watched the full 90 minutes again, in the cold light of day, and that just didn't happen. What's actually happening is that Mepham is adopting a 'sweeper' role when Sunderland are attacking. He can do that comfortably which gives O'Nien licence to roam more. The only time I saw O'Nien 'dive in' was when he went to block Bedia who checked and went the other way before hitting the bar. Nor did I see Mepham going on 'many runs' tbh ... ... I think you may be exaggerating which harms rather than helps your point imo.
That's a fair point although, thankfully, Hull is a short journey unlike the Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth endurance test we had when we eventually ran out of steam. We have a good squad and bench so can rotate and bring on subs earlier if we need to imo. I haven't seen any reports of injuries so we should have some good options ... ... having energy on the bench, like Aouchiche and Connolly, will be useful in this game I reckon.
I don’t like to write any team off from just looking at the league table, only 10 games in but there have been enough results to show that anyone can beat anyone on the right day. I expect a tough, physical game, and if we had some of the bigger lads back I’d have expected them back. Really interested to see how RLB lines up the team for this one. Whatever the squad though, hope we can come away with a clean sheet and a goal. 1-0, Mepham from a set piece
