Sunderland welcome Cardiff City to the Stadium of Light in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland beat Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff lost to Burnley in mid-week. Eliezer Mayenda scored a brace as Sunderland beat Wednesday 2-1. The Black cats rode their luck with a strong penalty shout after Hjelde handled as he went for a header and Mayenda appeared to be struck on the arm in the build up to his first goal. The Wearsiders remain 8 points behind Sheffield United, who occupy the second automatic promotion spot. Tommy Watson returned to full training last Thursday and is expected to return to the matchday squad. Jobe, Hume & Isidor are 1 or 2 bookings away from a ban. Ahmed Abdullahi is still struggling with the groin injury that sidelined the striker in the first half of the season and is not in contention. Dan Ballard is out for 6 to 8 weeks and Enzo Le Fée could miss 4 to 6 weeks. Jayden Danns remains unavailable, with Huggins & Alese on the injured list. Jewison Bennette is set to leave Sunderland, with the out of favour winger in talks over a move. Cardiff City lost 2-1 at home to Burnley on Tuesday. The Bluebirds remain in 20th position 5 points above the drop zone. Cardiff ended the Clarets' 12-game clean-sheet streak in the league as Yousef Salech headed home as Burnley conceded for the first time in 1,132 minutes. The Bluebirds hit the woodwork twice and almost equalised in added time. Regis le Bris: "It was important to give energy to the team, even if it wasn't easy to play football because the pitch was difficult for both teams. "It was more a question of energy, commitment, connection with the team and resilience. Even during the game we conceded the equaliser and it was important to stay connected and to find a solution to score, so it's good news for us. "Wilson did really well this season and is one of the best strikers in the league, for sure. "But we need two or three strikers to be competitive in this league so maybe it was the right time for Wilson to recover a little bit and Eliezer was ready." Press Conference: Omer Riza: "We are disappointed. You can't give goals away like they did, they weren't outstanding goals, we were poor at dealing with the ball in the box, we didn't get tight enough or pick up men well enough. "To go 2-0 down to a team like Burnley, you make it very hard for yourself. We scored the goal and got a lifeline… I thought second half we were better than them if I am being honest. "Will Fish will score that late chance nine times out of 10. Yousef Salech hit the post and crossbar, we had our chances, but the bottom line is we didn't pick up any points. "But the second half was a lot more pleasing. I thought we were worth a point, but we left ourselves too much to do." Form: Match Appointments Referee: DARREN BOND Assistant referees: James Mainwaring and Sian Massey-Ellis Fourth official: Darren Drysdale Team Lineups: Sunderland AFC: (4-3-3) Patterson, Cirkin, O’Nien, Mepham, Hume, Neil, Jobe, Rigg, Mundle, Mayenda, Isidor. Subs: Moore, Hjelde, Seelt, Browne, Samed, Aleksic, Roberts, Watson, Ogunsuyi. Injured: Huggins, Alese, Danns, Ballard, Le Fee, Poveda, Abdullahi Cardiff City: (3-5-2) Horyath, Goutas, Ng, Bagan, Rinomhota, Robertson, Mannverk, Chambers, O’Dowda, Ashford, Salech. Subs: Colwill, Davies, Ghazi, Fish, Lawlor, Ramsey, Robinson, Turner, Willock. Injured: Tanner, Alnwick, Turnbull, Daland. Betting Odds: Sunderland 11/20 Cardiff 19/4 Draw 29/10 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: A great away win and some good fortune at Hillsborough. Cardiff will be no pushovers as they showed against Burnley, but we should be up for this one and Cardiff’s away form is not great. I’m going for a 2-0 home win. @marcusblackcat is offering a free ticket here: Live Stream: https://www.safc.com/live (Available to overseas fans) Ha’way the Lads
Great stuff RTB, another cracker. I would stick with Mayenda up top and Roberts wide personally. Rigg back in for Browne is a good call.
Watson being back is huge. If he's fit and ready i'd start him on the right, I know it's not his natural position but he's good enough to adapt. Patterson Hume Mepham O'Nien Cirkin Watson Neil Jobe Mundle Mayenda Isidor I'm not a great fan of the 442 due to the lack of control it gives you in the middle but I really think we can overload Cardiff here with pure attacking talent. Salech is a massive threat for them, he'll definitely test our defensive capabilities especially aerially. Big game for us. Need to put together a run of wins to keep our slim hopes of top 2 alive, also to secure our playoff spot. 1-0. Isidor.
Got to be winning these games at home, big lad upfront for them is a problem, concerned we still gift silly chances and goals away but going for a tight 2-1 win, Wilson and I’m going to keep backing Roberts to get a goal
As others have said these can be a threat and have won they're last 3 visits here so another difficult fixture we have to win so no pressure there then!!. Reg found a line up and performance to bag the points at Hillsborough and trust him to do the same here. Home win any score will do HTL. Thanks for another cracking thread RTB...well done.
I’m over here for this match, was at the Hull match too (sorry!!) I really don’t bring much luck when I get to see the lads play! Hopefully this one will be a comfortable win. HTL
Good luck mate, it looks like being a 40,000+ crowd at 3pm on a Saturday ... ... hopefully you'll see some of the exciting football we're capable of. Whatever happens I hope Cardiff don't come with the same attitude some teams have. Hull stopped the game at every possible chance and the keeper wasted time for over an hour before the referee even tapped his watch. At one point a player went down off the pitch and crawled back on ... the referee just stood for it and made himself look like a coward. We have some quality players, capable of some great football ... I hope you get to see some.
I think this will be a more difficult game than some think, and I also expect a few surprises in the line up again. Maybe RLB will go 2 up top for this one, I for one would not be surprised as I think he will start trying different things as we start the run in.
Great thread and team selection RTB. We should have stuck with those two up front way back , the imbalance is also problematic imo and how we rectify it will be crucial to our season, hopefully, as our squad gets stronger and is utilised fully , so should we. OaU.,
Great thread @RTB Its a game we should be winning - I think the crowd have a large part to play here - positivity from the start please. Im hoping for Watson to come in also and I think we would have enough to win. Need to be careful of aerial threat though as well as them parking the bus. Ill still say a 2-1 win to the lads (If Roberts starts - he has to score sometime ffs)
Unfortunately teams will see what other teams have done to nullify us. Cardiff will see how Hull won. I expect the same from them.
This, in my opinion, is where Neil needs to use his captain’s role better with the referee. Opposition keepers absolutely take the piss, the entire game, and get warned on the 87th minute. And he needs to remind the officials that cramp, in the 60th minute, doesn’t require two trainers on the pitch. Even with the worst cramp you can still get off the pitch, you’d get off a sinking ship quick enough … cramp isn’t an injury ffs! And it’s time they banned ‘team talks’ every time there’s a mystery injury to the keeper … … anyone going off talking to the coaches shouldn’t be allowed back on for a full minute.
