Match Day Thread Brentford v Sunderland - Saturday 21st October - KO 15:00

Sunderland travel to Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship

Last time out Sunderland drew with QPR and Brentford beat Millwall at home.
Brentford forward Lasse Vibe could start after returning from a foot injury in the win over Millwall.
Winger Sergi Canos is closing to a comeback after ankle trouble, but left-back Rico Henry (knee) is sidelined.
Ivory Coast international Lamine Kone will be available to Sunderland manager Simon Grayson after illness.
Fellow centre-backs Marc Wilson and Ty Browning will be assessed, while on-loan midfielder Jonny Williams is a doubt with a tight hamstring.

Simon Grayson:
"If we get a real positive performance at home the crowd will certainly stay with us, that’s for sure. I think there was times in the home game against QPR where we played some decent stuff and they stayed with us, obviously there was the odd occasion that there was rumblings but that’s just part and parcel of football at any particular ground. Just because we’re away from home, we wanna try and win the game and put to bed when we go back to the Stadium of Light next saturday the opportunity to win a home game."

"Every manager will tell you, you like to have consistency, stability about the group that you can get a result and you can pick the same team. It’s highlighted the first four games of the season where we were unbeaten and we picked the same team, and that’s what I’d like, through different circumstances of injuries, suspensions, illness or whatever we’ve not been able to do that but also when you’re not winning matches you’ve got to try and find that winning formula, and that’s what we’re still probably searching for. Win on Saturday then it makes your decision as a manager for the following week a little bit easier than if you don’t."

Dean Smith:
"They (the fans) were brilliant last weekend, I think they felt, as well as the staff, a few decisions went against us and it riled them a little bit. They certainly made some noise, they were great and turned it into a good atmosphere for a London derby."
"We need them to be like that again tomorrow because of the position of Sunderland, as I said before it doesn't give you the right, you have to go and earn it. We ask them not be expectant but to get behind us from the start and hopefully we can all do this together and climb that table."

"You only have to see what happened to Aston Villa last season, they found it tougher than they expected to be, It's a tough the league, the Championship. Around 75 per cent now have been in the Premier League, so it's big clubs in this league and nobody has the divine right."
"But I watched them against Preston the other week and they gave as good as they got. I don't think they'll be down there for much longer under Simon, to be honest."

Match facts:

• This is the first league meeting between the teams since the 1992-93 season, with the sides sharing a 1-1 draw at Griffin Park in April 1993.
• Sunderland have only failed to score in one of their 17 previous meetings with the Bees in all competitions, a 4-0 defeat in October 1937.
• Brentford are unbeaten in their last five league outings (W2 D3), their longest unbeaten since April 2016 (six games unbeaten).
• Simon Grayson has never won at Griffin Park as a manager (D2 L5), and has seen his sides fail to score in five of those matches.
• After picking up four points in their opening two Championship games this season (W1 D1), the Black Cats have picked up just four in following 10 games.
• Aiden McGeady scored twice and assisted once in his last league appearance against Brentford, doing so under Simon Grayson for Preston in February 2017

Sports Analytics Machine – home win
Prutton predicts: Meh

Referee: DARREN ENGLAND
Assistants: Mark Pottage and Matt Foley
Fourth Official: Brett Huxtable

Team Line ups
Sunderland:

Substitutes: Ruiter, Jones, Gooch, Honeyman, Kone, Vaughan
Doubtful McManaman, McNair, Willliams, Wilson, Browning
Injured Maja

Brentford
Bentley, Dalsgaard, Egan, Bjelland, Clarke, Yennarls, Woods, Yozefzoon, Sawyers, Watkins, Maupay
Subs from McEachran, Vibe, Archibald, Daniels, Mepham
Injured Henry, Canos

Betting Odds:
H 5/6 A 14/5 D 3/1

My two pence:
After the draw with QPR we really need to get a win from somewhere, sadly I can’t see that happening this weekend as we don’t seem capable of keeping a clean sheet.

I’m going for a 2-2 draw

Ha’way the Lads

 

Get your bets on Egan scoring

 

You've got a job for life mate!! Well done.

Great threads! Nice one for taking it on. Bri's threads were a hard act to follow.

 

Cheers
It's been a busy week and I haven't had much free time to pull the stuff together.

 

I'm hoping that we'll win this one and then steal Brentford's strip.

Incidentally anyone who complains about the lack of activity on this board should check out Brentford's. Their last post was made when the internet was in its infancy. Don't think we'll be getting any lively banter from them.

 

Home Win

Hopefully Larrys last game in charge!!

Bart

 

Good thread despite the gloomy times - we need at least 8pts from next 4 games - ideally 9 0r 10
We need to start with 3 today - I'm not confident though

 

Yes their strip is worthy of Sunderland imo

 

Sign up here if you want to watch it -it's free and decent quality.

edit - just checked and it might only be the second half (better than nothing)

 

every bit of me want a Sunderland win, but I just don't see it. I would imagine now that most, if not all clubs in this league view Sunderland as 3 points. In our past days in this league, if they got a point off us they were delighted....not any more. Sad state of affairs

 

Home win

 

On form a point here would be a good result but we're starting to get to the stage where we need the win just to give us all a boost. I've no confidence at all for us to get the win that we need but could see us getting a point with a bit of luck.

 

Reminds me of somewhere....

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Kone back

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That’s ok team I’m fine with that
Looks more uniform

 

McManaman for Honeyman for me but pretty much the best team we could put out. Is Honeyman playing behind Grabban then with McGeady and Watmore on the wings.

 

I think so.
Probably something like this