Sunderland host Birmingham City in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland beat Cardiff and Birmingham drew with Stoke. Tony Mowbray’s Sunderland earned a well deserved three points from a relegation threatened Cardiff City. Dennis Cirkin celebrated his return to the first team with a goal, tapping in the rebound from an Alex Pritchard free kick. Luke O’Nien did not travel to Cardiff as his wife was due to give birth to their second child but should be available for this match. The Blues are in negotiations with a potential buyer and the current owners have been fined by the EFL for breaching regulations. On the pitch Birmingham City are in 17th place with 50 points. They played out a goalless draw against Stoke on Monday. Tony Mowbray: "We lacked a bit of a cutting edge and ruthlessness in the box. Someone who makes their living from scoring goals is probably what is missing. "It's not easy to see things out. You could see Cardiff's spirit and togetherness. "If we can beat Birmingham on Saturday, then Huddersfield on Tuesday night, then we'll have nine points from these three games. "That will be interesting to see where it puts us in the table, with three games to go. It would be exciting to go into the last two or three games, still in with a chance of creeping in. But let's see." John Eustace: "We were really happy with a point. The game certainly wasn't a spectacle, it wasn't a great footballing game, but the way we stuck in there without Stoke really causing us many problems was good, although they had good possession. "The conditions didn't help our forward play today at all, but they kept going and they could have even nicked it at the end. "Overall I'm delighted to get to 50 points, that was our main aim at the start of the season. There are still 15 points to play for and we're not mathematically safe so we've got to keep fighting and scrapping for every point." "Tony Mowbray has done a fantastic job there, they are a good footballing team, they play the right way" Match Appointments: Referee: STEPHEN MARTIN Assistant Referees: Matthew McGrath and Mark Dwyer Fourth Official: Leigh Doughty Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-2-3-1) Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Cirkin, Neil, Michut, Clarke, Amad, Roberts, Gelhardt Subs: Bass, Gooch, Ba, Pritchard, Ekwah, Lihadji, Anderson Injured: Embleton, Stewart, Evans, Ballard, Alese, Bennette, Huggins, Rigg Birmingham City (4-2-3-1) Ruddy, Colin, Roberts, Long, Trusty, Bacuna, Bielik, Chong, Hall, Khadra, Jutkiewicz. Subs: Etheridge, Mejbri, Hogan, Dean, James, Bellingham, Chang, Injured: Deeney, Gardner, Sanderson, Williams Betting Odds: Sunderland 2/1 Birmingham 11/8 Draw 23/10 Prutton Predicts: 2-1 My two pence: After a good first half at Cardiff we seemed to lose our way after taking the lead, but this time we held firm and sealed the 3 points. Birmingham are another physical team but we beat them 2-1 at their place and I think we can do the same this time. I'm going for a 2-1 home win. Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video (overseas fans) Ha’way the Lads
Off to Callender in the Trossocks on Saturday for a little break so phone updates for me. We won at their place so could find this hard to secure a double..they don't have any pressure having secured 50 points so we'll see which Birmingham turn up. Are we at a point when our team start feeling a bit of pressure for the first time this season so will our youngsters cope? TM has to get his selection spot on and the fans will have a big job to do trying to get us into the top six. Tight game but we'll secure the points HTL. Thanks for a brilliant effort again RTB.
Hoping for a change here mind. I've been going for over fifty years, and for a shed load of different reasons I have never actually seen us beat these. I'll keep trying.
RTB I will go with your team... Surely we have to improve our home form with a win...? 2-0 Amad and Clarke, or will Neil hit the target this game?
Need to absolutely sort our home form out. It's been rather poor over the year. Good place to start with B2B games now. I have to watch this one from home I think. Mrs is out for the day on the pop, first time in a while so no complaints.
Strong home win imo. Not sure if O'Niens missus has given birth yet but he would come back in to a back 4 if all is well.
Won't be long before you can drag those poor kids along to watch the lads Took my lad to his first game when he was 6. He's 16 now and absolutely obsessed with all things SAFC In terms of balance, dragging my sister along on Sat for her 1st ever game at the SOL. She's stepping off a plane from Canada at midday then straight to the match
Hope she enjoys it mate. My 7 year old has had a season ticket since he was 3. Just have a 1 year old too. Parents getting a full rewire so no childcare for her. At the moment anyway.
Great thread @RTB I think we will win 2-0 Amad and Clarke Hawaaaaaaaaay PS - last two times I predicted the scoreline we got humped off Stoke and drew with Hull
6-0. Geldy HT, Amad, Roberts and Clarke. A perfect forward line masterpiece. Coupled with a defensive masterclass. No pressure games. We are due a fantastic home performance and hopefully this is it. Cheers RTB. Yet another superb write up.
We'll not lose another match and it will come down to the last match at Preston to sneak into the play offs
That win + .... Boro 1-0 Norwich Millwall 1-0 Preston QPR 1-0 Coventry Blackburn 1-1 Hull ... would put us two points off sixth with a better GD. I think
well presented match report as usual thank you RTB, gone for a win as i think we will due to the standard in the last few matches, depte the injuries we are producing some brilliant stuff
