Sunderland travel to West Brom in the Championship. Last time out Sunderland drew with Leeds and West Brom beat Rotherham The Black Cats maintained their position in 13th place with 53 points after a hard fought point at Elland Road. Mike Dodds made some tactical changes for the Leeds game reverting to a back 5 at times to nullify their attacking threat. Timi Pembele had an impressive debut and could start. Evans, Embleton, Cirkin, Rusyn, Seelt and Huggins remain unavailable. West Brom beat relegated Rotherham 2-0 with first-half goals from Brandon Thomas-Asante and a highly controversial John Swift penalty. With four games left, Carlos Corberan's side are six points behind fourth-placed Southampton - four ahead of sixth-placed Norwich City and, most crucially, nine clear of seventh-placed Coventry City. Former Black Cats, Jann M’Vila and Josh Maja could feature. Mike Dodds: "The out of possession stuff I thought we were really good with, we obviously played them earlier in the year and nullified them then, they had one shot on target which is an achievement based on the Premier League talent they have at the top end of the pitch. "Our in possession stuff wasn't good enough, we need to be better with the ball and we'd have made it a much more comfortable evening for ourselves. "That's four clean sheets in five now. If we can improve in-possession, we are a match for anyone in the league." "Carlos Corberan: "I did not see a video of the penalty incident but I knew from the level of protest from the Rotherham bench that there was doubt. "I hope to see the team compete at their best level from now until the end of the season. "Every game is hard but we need to keep going and achieve something unbelievable." Form: Match Appointments: Referee: MATTHEW DONOHUE Assistant Referees: Paul Hodskinson & Nigel Lugg Fourth Official: Jeremy Simpson Team Lineups:Sunderland AFC: (3-4-3) Patterson, Ballard, O’Nien, Hume, Pembele, Neil, Ekwah, Styles, Rigg, Clarke, Jobe. Subs: Bishop, Ba, Hjelde, Alese, Hemir, Aouchiche, Dack, Roberts, Watson. Injured: Huggins, Cirkin, Embleton, Seelt, Rusyn, Evans, Matete. West Brom (4-2-3-1) Palmer, Furlong, Bartley, Kipré, Reach, M'Vila, Yokuslu, Fellows, Swift, Johnston, Thomas-Asante. Subs: Townsend, Ajayi, Maja, Phillips, Diangana, Chalobah, Weimann, Mowatt, Griffiths Injured: Molumby, Dike Betting Odds: Sunderland 18/5 West Brom 3/4 Draw 13/5 Prutton Predicts: meh My two pence: A solid defensive display and good slice of luck from the referee saw us grind out a 0-0 at Leeds. I’m expecting a similar sort of approach for this one and I’d be very happy with another clean sheet. WBA are dangerous in the air, which just happens to be one of our weakest areas. Hopefully Doddsy starts with Alese but we shall see. I’m going for a 0-1 away win Live Stream: Available Overseas fans only https://safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Think we could snatch a draw here. They're uneaten in 9 but not playing all that well. There will be nerves in the stadium and I'd like to see us set up similar to the Leeds game and nullify them early on and look for a goal on the break
We were unlucky not to score against Leeds and Jack Clarke is due one, so I'm going for 1-2 to the lads with Chris Rigg also bagging one. WBA will score from a penalty
Was a great game last year, wish I could get to this one but not possible. Unfortunately the star of the show last year, Denis Cirkin isn't available, I still remember his goal celebrations, or lack of, he didn't really know what to do in front of us crazy, cheering fans. One game to live long in the memory, let's hope we can put them to the sword again!. HTL
We turned them over there last season, like Leeds they'll be nervous whilst it's a free hit for us so why not a repeat of last season's result HTL.
Same setup as Leeds for me, it suits us. Not quite as exciting to watch but it's not that much different and we look much more solid at the back. Personally I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of free flowing attacking football for a professional performance. You'd think when we eventually get back to the prem a more pragmatic approach would be wise so might as well start now.
Tops again RTB The same team again will do me, but a change of timing and personnel in the subs (including Jobe , who is again looking drained after 60 mins) might not go amiss. Play like we did against Leeds , I have been saying this all season, and we will be OK. for a point or even 3 . OaU
Patto Hume Ballard O'Nien Pembele Ekwah Neil Styles Rigg Hemir Clarke See no harm in starting and sticking with Hemir from now until the end of the season. Don't want to see Roberts touch the field. Think I'm going to go with another 0-0, boring prediction I know but recently we look good defensively, apart from the Blackburn game, and a bit disjointed going forward.
I like this team , maybe start Mundle up front ?, he covers a lot of ground and often wins the ball back if he looses it, always can bring Hemir and Jobe on at 60 mins to freshen it up.
It's the most local ground to where I live, and for the first time in quite a while I'll be going, so I'm hoping for a win. Most years I get to a number of the Midlands based away games and only an occasional home game, but the last couple of years I've been to more home games but managed to be busy whenver we're playing round these parts. Looking forwards to it. HTL.
Agreed. I think we fully deserved our point. Got lucky with the second penalty decision (first one nobody had any idea it was a penalty despite Farkface’s comments!) but, every time we complain about certain decisions it always “evens itself out” so they can stick that in their pipe and smoke it!!
Personally I would not have accepted that. It needs a manager and a decent owner to allow their team to walk off. Absolutely fkn disgraceful decision.
Going for another draw and decent performance from us. 1-1 although obviously hoping for the win. Cheers RTB.
