Match Day Thread Accrington Stanley v Sunderland – Saturday 15th January 2022 - KO 15:00

Sunderland visit Accrington in the Skybet League One.

Last time out Sunderland lost to Lincoln and Accrington drew with MK Dons.
The Black Cats missed out on the chance to go top of League One thanks to Chris Maguires’s hat-trick with the former player coming back to haunt his old side.
A threadbare Sunderland squad has been reduced even further after Carl Winchester was shown a red card early in the second half, which will mean that he is suspended for the clash with Accrington Stanley. New signing Trai Hume could be in the squad at the Wham stadium.
Alex Pritchard is rated only 50-50 to play, just as he was going into the Lincoln game in midweek when he completed 80 minutes
The Black Cats will also make a late decision on midfielder Corry Evans who was stretchered off after being knocked out in a collision during last weekend's game at Wycombe. Following the concussion protocols with Evans meant he could not play against Lincoln but, in theory, he could return tomorrow.
Manager Lee Johnson will ask for a personal hearing and claim 'self-defence' for his red card on Tuesday and will be on the touch line at the weekend, he also indicated that the Black Cat's will have 3 or 4 players back for Saturday.
Frederik Alves has been recalled by West Ham.

John Coleman's Stanley sit in 11th place and are in a run of good form, unbeaten in four, but will be without midfielder Liam Coyle who was sent off in the 1-1 draw against MK Dons last weekend.
New signing, Rosaire Longelo, signed permanently from Newcastle, has now trained with the Reds for a week and will hope to feature in the squad tomorrow.
Stanley lost 2-1 at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season, but boss John Coleman felt that his side could take heart from their performance there and their recent run of form.
Goalkeeper James Trafford has been recalled to his parent club (Manchester City) and defender Sam Sherring has been recalled from his loan spell by AFC Bournemouth.
Lee Johnson:
“We hope to have three or four back for the weekend. Obviously you can’t guarantee it because you’ve got to check out the boys and the effects of the COVID that they’ve had, but we obviously need a bit of energy and a bit of flow back in the team.
"We have to regroup, dust the boys down and hopefully get a fair few back as I said. That's important. We hope to be able to freshen it up and clearly that's needed, we had some going into the game with knocks and niggles, Alex Pritchard for example was 50/50 to play tonight but showed that character to get out there, and fair play to him."
Of his red card, Johnson added: "I thought that it was high tackle from Callum. It wasn't the best tackle in the world.
"Obviously when there is an 18-year-old lad, albeit a big lad, getting picked on right in front of me, I felt that it was right to try and prevent and defend.
"The craziness is that I got sent off and nobody else did.
"I have to be accountable for my actions, I will be, and I will take any punishment on the chin."
On the state of the Stadium of Light pitch He said: "I've got no idea, if I'm honest, why the pitch was waterlogged with no rain.
"I've said before that we've got some fantastic ground staff here, but I honestly don't know what happened today. Until we have that discussion, it's very difficult for me to have an opinion about it.
"Often there's context to any particular situation. It's nothing against the people, but for some reason the pitch was waterlogged 40 minutes before the game.
John Cole:
“We played really well at their place, we had 23 shots and attacked them really well, and the game could have gone either way,” said the Reds boss.
“Six weeks ago we were leaking goals like a sieve and you couldn’t put your finger on it as we defended quite well in those games, but we were getting punished for every mistake that we made.
“We have had an upturn in form, not so much an upturn in performance, and had a little bit of luck along the way.
“We would like to be more offensive in our play. Joe Pritchard being out has been a really big loss for us because he is one of the best players in the league at running at people. That’s something that we haven’t got enough of at the moment in our squad, so we might try and rectify that during the transfer window.
“Hopefully Rosaire will give us one of the answers to that. We are always looking to be more offensive, more attacking, score more goals and keep them out at the other end.
“Our defence is not now watertight, we are always working on that, and we know the threat that Sunderland will pose.
“They even posed a threat on Tuesday night when down to ten men, but what we have got to start focusing on is what we are going to do to teams, particularly at home, and we have to put pressure on them and get them worrying about our players. We have good attacking players who can create and score goals and play some good football.”

Match Appointments:
Referee: JAMES BELL
Assistant Referees: David Avent and Peter Gooch
Fourth Official: Peter Wright

Team Line ups
Sunderland: Hoffmann, Cirkin, Doyle, Flanagan, Wright, T. Hume, Neil, Pritchard, Embleton, Stewart, Gooch.

Subs: Patterson, D.Hume, Younger, Xhemajli, Dajaku, O’Brien, Diamond.
Injured: Willis, Huggins, McGeady, O’Nien, Broadhead, Evans.
Suspended: Winchester

Accrington: (4-2-3-1) Savin, Clark, Sykes, Nottingham, O’Sullivan, Butcher, Nolan, Hamilton, Leigh, McConville, Bishop.
Subs: Isherwood, Rodgers, Pell, Mansell, Rosaire, Amankwah, Malcom
Injured: Morgan, Conneeley,
Suspended: Coyle

Betting Odds:
Sunderland 4/5 Accrington 29/10 Draw 5/2

My two pence:
A poor performance on Tuesday, but we have to re-group and hopefully bounce back with a few reinforcements coming back into the team. Accrington will be no push over and it could be a tight game.
I’m going for a 2-1 away win.

Live Stream: (overseas fans)
https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video

Ha’way the Lads

 

Marvelous stuff. I agree on the 1-2 and also Hume coming in at RB. Hopefully Wright is fit but either way I fully expect a positive reaction from the other nights awful **** show. Ha'way the ****ing Lads.

I'm away in the Lakes on Saturday so may not have a signal to post the team at 2pm. Hopefully I can get the game on the wireless

 

Really looking forward to this and expecting a win.

We're learning how to bounce back, these days, and I'm hoping for a few players back.

From memory we do well when Johnson is banned to the back of the stand ...

... and at Accrington that's only a couple of yards anyway

 

I need to check that bit

 

I'm down to my last few tickets btw, I'm sure they'll go unless the fog is really bad on Sat am.

 

An absolute must win, no excuses. Can’t say I’m confident mind after that embarrassment the other night…

 

We need to win this...simple as.
Great effort again RTB.
Players back will be a bonus, keeping Stewart injury free an essential. HTL.

 

RTB

Got to win...

 

Hope you're right, unfortunately I think this will be a score draw

 

Thanks again RTB we need to bounce back quickly from the latest MoM setback.

 

On paper we should beat them but same can definitely be said for Lincoln, even with a depleted side.

I’ll go with 1-1

 

Great thread as always RTB. Would like Dajaku in for Gooch, as I think he needs a rest.

I'm going for an away win to get us back on track.

 

Thanks again RTB brilliant as always. It’s quite simple for me a must win game after Tuesday. A game that will be difficult anyway and I wonder how confidence is after Tuesday. Fingers crossed they come out positive we have a few back from covid and get the right result. Tight away win for me.

 

Im going for the lads to bounce back and win 2-1

Put an end to this terrible 1 game losing streak!! Johnson out !! etc etc


HTL

 

May not have a signal, cheeky twat.

 

Johnson not banned. Managers get a personal hearing and he wants to put his case. Doesn’t think he should be banned. That’s what he said in his press conference. Will be on touch line tomorrow.

 

Worried about being bullied in centre midfield tomorrow. We are weak there without Winchester, Evans or ONien. Hoping he has faith in Hume to give him debut.

 

The transfer window has been open 13 days and yet we wait for players coming in, no injury excuses for me. might get a draw as this is the bad run starting due to the awful defence. can Lee use his mobile phone/walkie talkie to communicate by the way.

 

Gave us a very hard game at home, some big units in their side.

 

He will be on the touchline. Not banned.