Match Day Thread Sunderland AFC v Preston North End – Monday 1st January 2024 - KO 12:30

Sunderland welcome Preston North End to the Stadium of Light in the Championship.
Last time out Sunderland drew with Rotherham and Preston lost to Sheffield Wednesday.
The Black Cats dropped below Hull City into 7th place with a disappointing 1-1 draw in South Yorkshire. Patrick Roberts went off after 15 minutes and is unlikely to feature.
Michael Beale hinted that he would make changes on New Years Day to give some of the squad more game time over this hectic period.
Preston lost 1-0 at home to the 10 men of Sheffield Wednesday. Marvin Johnson's composed finish earned struggling Wednesday a vital victory and closed the gap to Championship safety to six points.
The Lilywhites have lost three of their last four games but did beat Leeds at home.
Mick Beale:
"We run out of time in the end. We were too slow getting started. The last 20 minutes or so was more like us. We were attacking and creating chances.
"We started the game poorly. They were quite direct in their play and their style overcame ours. We were sloppy and lacked a bit of presence up the pitch. They make it difficult. They make you defend your box and we are not the biggest team.
"Their goal was a heck of a strike but after that our response was really good. Once we got into our gameplan we caused Rotherham a lot of problems and at the end they were glad to hear the final whistle.
"Other teams have come here and found it difficult. Not just ourselves. I want us to be less fussy and spiteful in the final third. There has to be an end product from our possession."
Ryan Lowe:
"It's a massively frustrating night. There was certainly no lack of effort and determination from my lads, and the commitment was definitely there.
"We just didn't quite do enough in the final third and didn't get people in the right areas enough. We didn't put quality balls into the right areas, and that's cost us in the end.
"It's about us bouncing back now. We had good moments, but we've just not found the finish."

Match Appointments:
Referee: OLIVER LANGFORD
Assistant Referees: George Byrne & Andrew Dallison
Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone

Team Lineups:
Sunderland AFC: (3-4-3) Patterson, Ballard, Seelt, O’Nien, Hume, Neil, Ekwah, Pembele, Clarke, Rusyn, Bennette.

Subs: Bishop, Triantis, Alese, Mayenda, Pritchard, Aouchiche, Ba, Rigg, Jobe.
Injured: Evans, Cirkin, Huggins, Matete, Dack, Roberts

Preston (4-1-4-1) Woodman, Potts, Lindsay, Whatmough, Hughes, Whiteman, Holmes, Browne, McCann, Millar, Osmajic
Subs: Cunningham, Evans, Frökjaer-Jensen, Storey, Ledson, Riis, Woodburn, Cornell, Best
Injured: Brady


Betting Odds:
Sunderland 3/5 Preston 9/2 Draw 3/1

Prutton Predicts: meh

My two pence:
We need a good performance and ideally an early goal after a poor display at Rotherham. Preston beat us 2-1 early in the season but they are more inconsistent than us, I think we’ll win this one.
I’m going for a 1-0 home win.

Live Stream:
This game is live on Sky Sports Football from 12pm

Ha’way the Lads

 

Games come thick and fast, cracking thread as always @RTB

I like the look of that team you have picked. I think we need to get at them straight from the off and get the crowd up for it

 

Suspect a changed team and a day full of strange results up and down the league.

Let’s go mad with a 3-3

 

Another team we really should be beating. A fortunate win against a 10 man Leeds is probably keeping Ryan Lowe in a job.

Have a bad feeling that the game will follow a very similar pattern to basically all of our games this season.

Please play a striker and please play Aouchiche or Pritchard behind them.

 

Ideal opportunity to play a couple of strikers disguised as resting some players.

 

3-1 Ha'way the lads.

 

Another team we seem to struggle against, they're big and direct, bit like Rotherham so expect another nail biter.
If we get the three points our holiday period can be classed as satisfactory.
As for team selection, who knows, thanks again RTB, Geordies up shortly HTL.

 

Weird how this season we have a better home record and a worse away one.
So for that reason...2-0 The Lads

 

I'd go

Patterson
Pembele Ballard Seelt Hume
Jobe Neil
Aouchiche Pritchard Clarke
Rusyn​

 

Perfect team that mate with PR being out. But honestly can't see him dropping O'Nien.
Would much prefer Seelt at CH.

Edit
Really like the look of Pembelle

 

Hectic ? I'm not even sure which MDT I'm on , but certain its another RTB's , so whoever plays and whatever style, lets do it justice with a win.. OaU

 

2-0 to the lads

 

I'd go with:

Patterson

O'Nien Seelt Ballard

Pembele Ekwah Neil Hume

Adil Rusyn Clarke

Thought about putting Jobe in CM but he could do with a break and Ekwah should do better with three CBs behind him and less need to defend. I do see Jobe alongside Neil long term though.

 

I sense another frustratingly stuttering performance but a fairly comfy 2-0 win in the end.

Bart

 

Like that team mate

 

Don’t really fancy us. We’ve been poor under Beale.

 

In a whole 3 games

 

If go for that... think most would.. so would love them to pick that just so we can find out why they don't and know better than we do

 

If any player could do with a break mate it's Clarke.

 

You’re absolutely right, and if he was rested and we’d won all would be good. The pelters Beale would get if we lost though, would tip the boo boys over