Sunderland travel to the Mornflake Stadium to face Crewe in the Skybet League One Last time out Sunderland beat Gillingham and Crewe lost to Fleetwood. The Black Cats won 2-1 at Gillingham at the weekend without a natural wide man in the side, with Aiden McGeady (ankle), Leon Dajaku (thigh), and Lynden Gooch (foot), all out of action. In their absence, Sunderland played with Elliot Embleton and Alex Pritchard as inside forwards. Sunderland will have to adjust again as Elliot Embleton starts a three-game ban following his red card at the Priestfield Stadium. Frederik Alves has a muscle strain and could be rested for a few more days, Corry Evans is recovering from a calf problem and Niall Huggins is out for 3 months with a back problem. Crewe are currently in the relegation zone with one more point than bottom placed Doncaster. The Railwaymen only managed one shot on target in their 3-0 defeat at Fleetwood. Former Black Cats Mikael Mandron and Callum McFazdean could both start for Crewe. Lee Johnson: "We have to be better than we were in the first half. I wasn't pleased with the first half performance, but I was very pleased with the timing of our first goal because it allowed us to be objective and not emotive at half-time. The first 25 minutes of the second half was excellent." "You have to remember that some of these boys have been away, we had no natural wingers playing in that team today, they came together again on Thursday and then made the big trip down here on Friday, and we were against a side that are going to cause teams problems - particularly here." "It was a really tough game and I was very pleased to get the three points." "I think Aiden is probably 50-50, Goochy maybe 70-30 against, and so on and so forth for the lads moving forward. "We'll have to see. At the weekend, you commit to focusing on the starting XI and the team, and the physios back at the AoL will have to try and fast-track the injured players if possible. "Putting Will (Harris) on there didn’t faze me. I was going to put Denver (Hume) on wide and take Rosco (Ross Stewart) off but we just wanted that extra couple of inches in height after playing for 20 minutes with ten men. "For Crewe, we will have pretty much that XI - minus Embo - to start again. We've got no choice really but we'll be alright. We just have to find tactical solutions like we have all season.” "We started off the season with no full-backs and we found a solution so we'll try and do something similar again." David Artell: “I thought that it wasn’t a particularly high quality game. I didn’t think that it was a high intensity game either. We have conceded a poor first goal where we haven’t got the marking sorted out. “The second goal was a free-kick from a player who shouldn’t have been on the pitch to take it, but that is all I want to say about that. So we have conceded from two set pieces, and the third goal was a break away goal. “It wasn’t really about that. When you suffer set-backs in football, and in life, it is about how you react and I thought that some of our lads reacted really poorly. What I’ve taken today is that we have to react a lot better to going a goal down. At that point I didn’t think there was very much in the game. “We should have also made better decisions in the final third of the pitch, but going one goal down should not be the knockout blow that it was today. It can’t happen and it sort of spiralled from there. “We have had a good chat afterwards. Everyone has had their opinion and it was open dialogue. I think we will better for it going forward.” Match Appointments: Referee: CARL BOYESON Assistant Referees: Lee Freeman and Conor Brown Fourth Official: Paul Graham Team Line ups Sunderland: Hoffman; Cirkin, Doyle, Flanagan, Winchester, O’Nien, Neil, Pritchard, McGeady, Stewart, O’Brien. Subs: Burge, Hume, Younger, Wright, Wearne, Sohna, Harris. Injured: Willis, Alves, Dajaku, Huggins, Broadhead, Gooch, McGeady. Suspended: Embleton (at least 9 games – according to Steve Evans ) Crewe Alexandra: Jaaskelainen, Adebisi, Offord, Thomas, McFadzean, Murphy, Robertson, Finney, Kashket, Porter, Bennett Subs: Richards, Ramsay, Long, Mandron, Gomes, Lundstram, Daniels. Injured: tbc Betting Odds: Sunderland 3/4 Crewe 10/3 Draw 13/5 My two pence: I had a great day out in Kent, despite the grim surroundings of Gillingham. The game itself was always going to be a bit of a battle. We fought for the 3 points and held on even when down to 10 men. Hoffmann made some great saves and Flanagan was there when it mattered - at both ends. I’m expecting a completely different game at Crewe as we impose our footballing style against a team who like to pass the ball rather than just launch it into the penalty area. I'm hoping that McGeady can play on the right against McFadzean. I’m going for a 2-0 away win Live Stream https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
another cracker again RTB gone for the win again hope who steps in to Embos spot can dominate the game
HA'WAY THE LADS MACKEMS ATTACKEM Another test away with a bit of a makeshift side, but Crewe are struggling so hopefully we are still too much for them. Crewe is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston, Shavington cum Gresty and Wistaston. Not many notable famous people from Crewe. One is Blaster Bates a.k.a. Derek Macintosh Bates (1923 in Crewe – 2006), an English explosives and demolition expert and raconteur.
Good result at the weekend and the same again will do for me. Doesn't matter how you do it just get the points and move on, it's tight in the top six and some are playing each other so a win here could be a massive result in the grand scheme of things. Great thread again RTB.
Great thread RTB. This match may ne trickier than most expect. They've drawn with both Plymouth and Rotheram so i'll be happy with a win. 2-0 the lads
Rotherham/Wycombe and Wigan/MK Dons tomorrow. That’s 4 of the top 6. What a chance we’ve got to get back into the top 2 with a win here.
RTB Mcfadzean uh... as RTB says I hope Mcgeady is fit enough to play... he could have a field day. Crewe are in a bad run atm, but do not play bad football. Away midweek games are not easy, not sure the weather forecast, I think it could be wet. I reckon another tight game, aren't they all! If fit back four picks themselves, then 09 and Neil, yep. ATM, I am not a big fan of Pritchard, but as some pundit said over the weekend, it takes a dozen games to get match fit and sharp. Hume may start as a winger if Mcgeady still crocked? Will I be able to pay a £10 and watch this?
There was a young from Crewe Who went for a train for two to two The porter said dont worry Or scurry, or flurry Theres a minute or two to two to two
Excellent as always. I'm going for 3 nowt to us. I think Hume will play out wide in front of Cirkin. Rossco, Pritchard and Onien with the goals.
March 12th 2005 I was there. We had two sides of the ground and Sleeves won it with about 15 mins to go, think we went top of the league that day. Got to be fancying us to win this one even with the absentees, they've had a shocking start to the season and I hope we're able to put them to the sword.
Great job again RTB. Thanks . I’m happy to scrape 1-0 here, won’t be easy , glad for 3 points on a day when others in the 6 have to lose points playing each other