Sunderland welcome Hull City to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland lost at Leeds and Hull drew with Norwich. The Black Cats started well with two early opportunities to take the lead. Leeds dominated possession without threatening to score. Wilson Isidor put the visitors ahead on the 32td minute with a well taken goal. In the second half Leeds adapted to reduce Sunderland’s counter attacking ability and equalised from Rothwell’s dangerous cross and a glancing header from Struijk. A last minute winner again from the head of Struijk was a cruel blow for the Wearsiders and their travelling fans. Jobe has 9 bookings and is 1 away from a 2 match ban. Hume & Isidor are 2 bookings away from a ban. New signing Jayden Danns remains unavailable, with Huggins & Alese on the injured list. Hull drew 1-1 at home to Norwich and remain a point and a place above the relegation zone. The Tigers took an early lead as Crooks scored his second goal since joining from Real Salt Lake in January, the midfielder slamming home Lewie Coyle's pull-back from the right. After being second best for most of the first half, Norwich City came from behind to earn an away point as Josh Sargent grabbed his fifth goal in five games. Three ex Black Cats return to the Stadium of Light with Egan, Gelhardt & Burstow all expected to feature. Regis le Bris: "The crowd, the energy of the stadium was always increasing and we couldn't break it. "We can be proud of our way of playing. We were brave and played as a team but without the small details that can change the dynamic. "We need a bit more depth in our squad. We have three or four players who weren't fit but they can be back next week and make a difference. We are still in a good place and the team is still improving. "You have to admit that Leeds were very good this evening. Sometimes you can't find solutions." Press Conference: Ruben Selles: "Every point is gold for us in the situation that we are in. "We have an argument that we could get three points but the opposition had a few chances. I think the game was competitive, the game was equal, and the point is probably fair for everyone. "We want to always get three points but recent experiences like today have not got any points – and today we got the point. It's put us a little bit closer to the target and we will build from there. "We scored the goal. But sometimes you play against an opponent that starts to connect a little bit better – and that pushed us backwards. The goal early in the second half meant we had to restart again. But after that we managed the game well." Form: Match Appointments Referee: FARAI HALLAM Assistant referees: Andrew Fox and Blake Antrobus Fourth official: Lewis Smith Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, O’Nien, Ballard, Hume, Neil, Jobe, Le Fée, Mundle, Roberts, Isidor. Subs: Moore, Hjelde, Mepham, Rigg, Samed, Browne, Aleksíc Poveda, Mayenda. Injured: Huggins, Alese, Danns. Hull City: (4-2-3-1) Pandur, McLoughlin, Jones, Egan, Coyle, Slater, Alzate, Barry, Crooks, Gelhardt, Pedro Subs: Amrabat, Burstow, Drameh, Jacob, Joseph, Kamara, Matazu, Lo-tutala, Puerta. Injured: Millar, Bellumi, Palmer, Sinik, Hughes, Cartwright. Betting Odds: Sunderland 66/40 Hull 15/4 Draw 5/1 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: A good performance against the best footballing team in the division, despite a couple of moments we looked good for at least a point. Hull recently beat Sheffield United 3-0 at home and can’t be seen as an easy game. They did lose 2-0 at Burnley though. However, we are getting close to a full-strength squad and should have enough to get the much needed 3 points to start our winning streak. Let’s hope that Joffy Gelhardt, Mason Burstow and John Egan do not enjoy their return to the SoL. Jude Bellingham has a 2 game ban so might be at the SoL to watch his brother. Hopefully Jobe doesn’t get a card. I’m going for a 2-0 home win. Live Stream: Live on Sky Sports Football https://www.safc.com/live Ha’way the Lads
I'll be there for this one can't wait, we will step it up a gear imo and bounce back from that last min heartbreak. Hawaaaaaaay
Me too mate, can’t wait. Train arrives at noon so straight to the ground and Ha’way the Lads … … another massive game and countdown to promotion.
A must win and the start of hopefully a monster winning run. Really want to see changes, not sure how fit Mundle is but hoping he gets some serious minutes. Be interesting how they manage Jobe and his yellow cards. Mayenda needs more minutes. Would even consider benching Rigg. However, the latter should be able to find space and time agaisnt this opposition at home.
Thanks RTB A very up in the air game I think, whilst they lurk at the bottom of the table, they still have capable players. I honestly didn't realise John Egan has signed for Hull, I always liked him at Sheff Utd. Gelhardt has the potential to be dangerous simply because he was a bit average for us. I did like him in his time here, but it was a rough period injury wise. Lewis Coyle I thought played well last time we played them, we were well dealt with for most of the game and it took individual brilliance from Isidor to break the deadlock. It started the run where we went on to beat Luton and then Oxford. I hope we are ready for saturday, it's gonna be tough as usual, we need to make sure we find ways to be creative, so many times we've been devoid of the drive and ideas when opening games at home, this is a big moment for us. I'd sacrifice Rigg in this one simply because we need another physical body in there who can beat their man and make things happen. Mundle if he's ready should start with Le Fee coming central. This little tweak could see us score more than 2 in a game for the first time in a while.
Really hope that the crowd are fully behind the team for this one, because no matter what transpires this season they have earned our full support. I think if we play well then we win I am going for a 3-0 and a morale boosting victory.
Cracking read as always @RTB. Looking forward to seeing Mundle get some minutes and hopefully 3 points. It would be nice to get a repeat of the Luton score line but I think these will be bang at it so we just need to win by whatever means and hope Leeds do Sheff Utd on Monday. 2-1 to the Lads.
I agreed to go to Carlisle Gillingham before the start of the season with my dad so of course it falls when we’re at home and missing this one, will be a who’s who of Sunderland league one dross on display too, can hopefully find a pub to watch the lads before heading up though fancy us to bounce back from Monday, would like mayenda to get a start he’s done nothing wrong and gives us an extra injection of pace, would like us to play on the front foot and really get at these, fancy a 2-0 Wilson and mundle off the bench last 10 to score
Sure Reggie will have the lads back up for this one. Get us back on track...any score will do as long as we get the three points. HTL.
Forget how good the squad is until i see it written down at times, hope to get an update on when we can expect Danns in the presser too
Thanks again RTB for your MDT Hull are very much an up and down team who have struggled near the drop zone all season, I have watched them a few times and they do have players that can cause problems, even so with our squad we should beat them 9 x out of 10. We probably need 6 points from the next two games, and a team picked and managed to pressurise others and not ourselves. OaU.
Like the team posted but would have Poveda or Mayenda in for Roberts. Really really hope that Mundle is ready to start. Haven’t really watched Hull this season - what can we expect? Surely they’ll be wanting more than a draw.
