Sunderland travel to the Riverside to face Middlesbrough in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland beat Stoke and Middlesbrough lost to Chelsea in the League cup. The Black Cats moved up to 7th place after a well deserved home win and are 1 point behind 6th placed Coventry. Michael Beale made a number of changes after Alex Pritchard made himself unavailable for selection, Burstow and Ba started along with Seelt as the Black Cats won 3-1. Adil Auchiche should be available but Alese, Cirkin, Dack, Huggins and Evans remain on the injured list. New signings Leo Hjelde, Callum Styles and Romaine Mundle are unlikely to feature in the starting 11. Jewison Bennette has joined Aris FC on loan in the Greek super league. Nectar Triantis and Eliezer Mayenda have both joined Hibernian on loan. Jay Matete has joined Oxford on loan and Jack Diamond has joined Carlisle on loan. Alex Pritchard has left the club to join Birmingham on a permanent deal. Middlesbrough are recovering from a 6-1 Carabao cup semi final defeat away at Chelsea and will want a win to keep in the race for a play-off place. Michael Carrick is hoping that his side’s mini-break from action could work in their favour, with it provided additional time to get some players back up to speed after injury. The Teesiders will be without Morgan Rogers who was signed by Aston Villa for £8m, Rogers scored 7 goals and had 9 assists this season. Mick Beale: "I'm delighted for the players, lots of individuals things like Mason [Burstow] scoring his first goal, and the work ethic of the boys behind the scenes. "It's been a difficult two weeks for them with the last two or three results, so the effort they've put in I've been delighted with. This was a really good win today. "Alex [Pritchard] is a boy out of contract, he's been offered one, and mentally I think it's got too much for him, but let's keep the focus on the boys that played, it's really important - it's a wonderful club to play for with lots of expectation, the boys delivered a good result. "The club made a statement and I'm sure in the coming days with the window coming to an end there will be more to be said on that." Michael Carrick: "Whatever happened at Chelsea, the league was always going to be there for us and we need to finish strong now. We’re right in the thick of it. "It’s tight in the league and we’ll look forward to a good end to the season. We have to move on from this disappointment, take the positives from it, learn from it and come back stronger.” "In some ways, it (gap) could help. "We’ll make the most of it. The boys will have a couple of days off. "We’ll refresh and try to get one or two back fit if we can. At the same point, we’ll take a bit of a breath really because it’s going to be thick and fast again. "Up until now, it has been very thick and fast, so now is the time to take a bit of a breath and come back again next week." Match Appointments: Referee: DARREN ENGLAND Assistant Referees: Edward Smart & Nick Greenhalgh Fourth Official: Leigh Doughty Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Hume, Ballard, O'Nein, Seelt, Neil, Ekwah, Jobe, Ba, Clarke, Burstow. Subs: Bishop, Pembele, Aouchiche, Hjelde, Rigg, Rusyn, Watson, Hemir, Mundle Injured: Evans, Cirkin, Huggins, Dack, Roberts, Alese, Embleton Middlesbrough (4-2-3-1) Glover, Ayling, Van De Berg, Fry, Engel, Hackney, Howson, Forss, Azaz, Greenwood, Coburn Subs: Gilbert, Dijksteel, McNair, O'Brien, McCabe, Bridge, Bilongo Injured: Lenihan, Smith, Dieng, Bangura, Smith, Lath Unavailable: Riley McGree, Sam Silvera (Asian Cup) Betting Odds: Sunderland 5/2 Middlesbrough 1/1 Draw 13/5 Prutton Predicts: 2-2 My two pence: Another tough game against the smog monsters down the A19. I’d love to get some sort of revenge for the home defeat earlier in the season when Dan Neil was sent off. We seem to be moving away from the possession football and taking a more direct approach and the way that Boro play could help us with that, as they are unlikely to sit back and defend. I’m going for a 2-1 away win Live Stream: Live on Sky Sports Football from 11:30 Overseas fans: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Press conference: Ha’way the Lads
Great intro to this match RTB especially as all eyes still on the transfer clock. l like the team selection and am hoping your prediction is just as accurate. Keeping TF.
Going to do my best to treat this as our derby now Newcastle has left the building. It won't work but it's the best we can do. I really hope we build on the Stoke tactics and continue to be positive. There's nothing to fear.
As mentioned by Dave39 our record down there is really poor. Time for a change in fortunes, our Stoke result must be a big boost for the lads especially the goalscorers and if we can carry that into Sunday it could be payback time for the lads. Thanks RTB HTL.
Need to try and get some momentum going again. Last week's 3 points were welcome although, I do think it flattered us with Stoke missing many golden chances. I don't Boro will be so toothless. I'll take a point on the road.
Would like to see Rusyn start or even Burstow, just don't go back to Jobe up there! The home fixture was ruined by that sending off! Was close with us probably edging it in looking most likely to make a scoring opportunity! Then we fell apart once down to 10 and they were ruthless! Think this one will be close and hopefully we get over the line.
They didn't though, sorry but come on. No one on one's with the keeper, nothing in the six yard box, no attacks when they outnumbered us and rarely got behind our defence. Patterson didn't make any great saves, he was always in position, and we had defenders blocking a couple of shots as they should. They didn't miss any sitters. You could say the Clarke and Ekwah chances, in the first half, were at least as 'golden' ... ... I'm not behing difficult but I really think we fully deserved that result. If all the chances had gone in we'd have won 5-3.
They had 1 off the line. 2 or 3 over the bar from 8 yards out. One just wide of the post. They definitely had the chances. At one point they should have scored 3 in about 10 seconds and missed them all!
With those we had defenders between them and the goal, that's good defending including the O'Nien block ... ... we didn't just get lucky. The Junho shot looked good but you'd have to be disappointed if Patterson let that in, the same with the other decent save he made. I'm not being awkward, just don't think that flattered us. They didn't score and we carved them open twice.
About time we turn these over here, a points not a bad one though, hope the loss of Rogers really affects them 2-1 win Burstow and an Ekwah thunderbastard, Haway
We also have to remember that about four of their opportunities came in one phase of play, so the stats regarding shots and so on flattered Stoke. They really should have scored in that phase, but equally we had chances to score more than we did.
