You must log in or register to see images
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."
You must log in or register to see images
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.
You must log in or register to see images
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
You must log in or register to see images
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
