Sunderland travel to Accrington Stanley in League One Last time out Sunderland beat Notts County and Accrington beat Lincoln after a penalty shootout. Jack Ross hopes to have Chris Maguire available for selection when Sunderland travel to Accrington Stanley this weekend. The forward last featured for the Lads in their 4-2 win against Barnsley at the Stadium of Light, but he returned to training on Thursday. Lee Cattermole has also resumed training, but the midfielder isn’t expected to feature at the Wham Stadium and is likely to make his return a few days later in the Black Cats’ Emirates FA Cup replay against Walsall. The Black Cats have sold out their full 2,374 allocation of tickets for the game and have now secured permission from both the Lancashire side and the EFL to screen the game on Wearside in what will be the only authorised public broadcast of the match. The game will be shown in Quinn's Bar at the stadium with tickets costing £10, which includes a bottle of beer on arrival and pie and peas before kick-off. This will be the first meeting between Sunderland and Accrington Stanley. The Black Cats played against Accrington FC - one of the founder members of the Football League - in the 1890s, but that was a separate entity. Accrington's form has fallen away a little bit lately with three league defeats on the spin, but they will be right up for this one. Manager John Coleman has a fully fit squad with Andy Mangan and Harvey Rodgers back after injuries. Jack Ross: "Chris Maguire has trained today and should be okay” “Lee Cattermole has trained a couple of days this week, so all being well he will be back in the squad for the Walsall game, as he’s obviously been out for about a month now. I’m really pleased with how he’s looked in training, and he feels good as well.” “Tuesday was Duncan’s first game back, so we’re getting there, but we still have Ethan Robson, Donald Love and Denver Hume out. We’re probably getting close to being the healthiest we have all season.” John Coleman: “It’s going to create attention, with the record crowd, it will be a cracking atmosphere and I am sure that the Sunderland fans will enjoy the Wham Stadium experience with all that goes on pre- and post-match. I think it’s a unique experience and it’s the best value football around the UK.” “I didn’t want Sunderland to get relegated. I like to see the ‘big’ teams play at the highest level and I do remember watching Sunderland win the 1973 FA Cup Final, although I was a closet Leeds fan so I was crying at the time!” “I don’t like seeing big teams have a hard time even though I know that not all of the bigger teams can be in the Premier League, but we will be doing our utmost to beat them on Saturday.” Prutton predicts: 1-2 Match Appointments: Referee: OLIVER LANGFORD Assistants: Robert Merchant and Nick Hopton Fourth Official: Tom Nield Team Line ups Sunderland: McLaughlin, Matthews, Flanagan, Baldwin, James, Honeyman (c), Power, Gooch, McGeady, Maguire, Maja Subs: Ruiter, Loovens, McGeouch, Oviedo, O’Nien, Watmore, Sinclair Injured: Lovee, Hume, Robson, Cattermole, Wyke Accrington Stanley: Ripley, Johnson, Ihiekwe, hughes, Richards-Everton, Clarke, Conneely (c), Barlaser, McConville, Finley, Kee Substitutes: Maxted, Brown, Zanzala, Sykes, Mingoia, Scott, Platt Injured: none Betting Odds: H 19/10 A 13/10 D 23/10 My two pence: I fully expect Jack to revert to his usual team selection with a return for Maguire and a possible start for Watmore or at least a place on the bench. The last time we played in Accrington (FC not Stanley) we won 6-0 but that was in 1892. Thanks to TheStatCat for the help. My guess is a 2-1 away win. Ha’way the Lads
The Wham Stadium? Seriously?? I did not know that. Good job Bob Murray wasn't a Duran Duran fan or something... Terrific post, though, RTB. Don't how you do the technical stuff and the content is top notch
"The Black Cats have sold out their full 2,374 allocation of tickets for the game and have now secured permission from both the Lancashire side and the EFL to screen the game on Wearside in what will be the only authorised public broadcast of the match. The game will be shown in Quinn's Bar at the stadium with tickets costing £10, which includes a bottle of beer on arrival and pie and peas before kick-off." I like all these proactive ideas to get more money into the club while simultaneously making fans happy. Lots of small things that together add up. I think we've been clueless about it for many years before the current regime. I also like the oppo managers comments for once.
Apparently it's part of a sponsorship deal with "What More UK Ltd." - surely that's some kind of omen for Duncan What More Powerpoint is not very technical
Even though their form has dropped off a little lately this could be our hardest game so far this season. Not taking anything for granted but we should have enough quality for a 2-0 win. Keep the run going lads. Tried to get tickets for me and Rooch in the home end on the day they went on sale and couldn't even get through to the club, this is definitely a sell out.
Just got to win to keep the pressure on Portsmouth, and the chasing teams. Hoping we have too much for them. 1-3 to the lads!!!! Bart
That's interesting RTB, too late for me now just couldn't get through all day when the tickets went on sale and as they only usually have 2000+ at home games didn't think we had a chance.s hope there's not rows of empty seats tomorrow.
Going for 4 - 1 to the lads.....a sort of balls for glory performance.....can't accuse me of sitting on the fence with my prediction....lol
LA I've thought this for a while that were going to give somebody a bloody good hiding on the pitch and thought Barnsley was going to be the one before we switched off for half an hour. It's going to happen so why not today.
The best feeling is that on matchdays we know we've got a great chance with a young, hungry, talented team that doesn't ever quit. Even if we lose, we can still be optimistic before the match knowing the other side are going to have to put in a real shift to get one over our lads. Marvellous feeling that we haven't really known since Reidy was doing his thing.
So refreshing to hear a rival manager not complain about the size of our budget and squad before the game getting the excuses in early and actually wish us well except for the game they play us of course.
Portsmouth Luton and Pboro , all likely to win at home today, so really could do with a win . Confident that we will .