Sunderland host Wigan Athletic in League One Last time out Sunderland beat Hull and Wigan beat Preston North End in pre-season friendlies. Sunderland welcome back old boys Jordan Jones, Max Power and Charlie Wyke to the Stadium of Light as Wigan Athletic look to buy their way out of League One. The Black Cat’s have announced that new signing Corry Evans will be the team captain and Aiden McGeady will be vice-captain. Bailey Wright, Lee Burge, and Aiden McGeady should be fine to return to the side but new signing Alex Pritchard could be on the bench. The Latics have signed Jordan Jones on a three year contract from Rangers and joins up with the other two former Black Cats who made the switch to Wigan earlier in the transfer window. Wigan have a few injury concerns with Jordan Cousins, Gwion Edwards and Tom Pearce all missing the friendly against Preston. However they could all return to the squad for Saturday’s game. Lee Johnson: “The team captain will be Corry Evans, who is obviously an experienced international and very well-respected, and he is very calm – at a club like this, that calmness personified, both in his performances and general day-to-day consistency, becomes very important.” “Vice-captain will be Aiden McGeady, a very different leader and talisman if you like, somebody that really grabs a game by the scruff of the neck.” “He is also hugely respected within the squad, not only because of his career but because of his football intelligence. “We have gone with two club captains and they are tasked with driving the culture and driving the standards, particularly off the pitch. “They are Bailey Wright, who is well versed in that role having done it for me at Bristol City, and Luke O’Nien, who we feel has real leadership potential off the pitch and we are looking to hone and develop that on the pitch. “Lynden Gooch and Tom Flanagan also come into the communications and leadership group and what that is, is those six guys that we – from me to the sporting director – can discuss any key subjects with.” Leam Richardson: “Fingers crossed they’re all more days than weeks; Jordan Cousins has an issue with his Achilles tendon and to be fair to him he probably did two-and-a-half weeks in pre-season when he should have come off it, but the person that he is, he wants to be out there and training hard. We have just had to manage his workload a little bit to make sure he is available to get into training next week. “Tom Pearce is the same, a knock on his ankle from Tuesday and we’ll get the results from the scan on that so fingers crossed it is not too bad. Gwion had a back spasm and again hopefully just days rather than weeks.” Match Appointments: Referee: ROBERT MADELY Assistant Referees: Joe Clarke & Stephen Wade Fourth Official: Paul Marsden Team Line ups Sunderland: Patterson; Neil, Flanagan, Doyle, Winchester; Evans, Embleton, O’Nien; McGeady, Stewart, Gooch. Subs: Burge, Wright, Younger, Diamond, O’Brien, Hawkes, Grigg Injured: Xhemajli, Willis, (Hume), Pritchard Wigan Athletic: Amos; Darikwa, Robinson, Whatmough, Long; Naylor, Power; Lang, Keane, Humphrys; Wyke. Subs: Jones, Aasgaard, Smith, McHugh, Costello, Massey, J.Jones Injured: Cousins, Edwards, Pearce Betting Odds: Sunderland 5/6 Wigan 29/10 Draw 12/5 My two pence: A good performance against Hull and great to see the fans back at the SoL. Doyle, Evans and Embleton were impressive once again and we played some decent football in the first half. Hopefully we don’t have any more players going down with gastro enteritis. Wigan have had a good pre-season having won all 4 games (Preston, Stoke, Fylde, Oldham), scoring 8 goals and conceding 4. It will be interesting to see how Charlie does against us, as he failed to score in those games. I’m going for a 2-0 home win. For all those going to this one - get in early and sing your hearts out Live stream (only available to overseas fans) https://www.safc.com/news/team-news/live-video Ha’way the Lads
Gerrin RTB mate. The real stuff is back and your threads are part of it. Reckon your team is spot on. Play our game, ignore theirs. Keep the ball and play forward and we beat them. Embleton running off Power has me salivating. 2-0. stewart and gooch, with gooch giving Power a gobfull when he screams it in.
Maybe - but I think we've played 4 at the back for all the friendlies. LJ might surprise us all and play Younger, Wright & Doyle - but I doubt it.
We’ve been decent enough in pre-season but Wigan will know where to target us come Saturday. Very surprised to see us odds on mind.
Reckon we will know more about them mind. The football we play is different to anything Power will relate to. We know what Wyke brings, what Power doesnt and how to make Jones look weak. I would target Power all day if his in midfield and try and get him exposed to players running at him. Fouls galore.
Not a clue how it’s gonna go, but one thing I guarantee I will be supporting no matter what and taking no poison in to the stadium with me. No matter what.
I've emailed the ticket office and Chris Waters directly but no reply yet. Some over the road are saying 2019/20 cards will work but I've not had confirmation from the club. Also seen on Twitter that people have contacted the ticket office yesterday and today about not receiving their ST cards and PAPER tickets will be posted out to them. One lad posted a screenshot of his e-ticket account where the receipt for the paper ticket was that the club had issued. Me, me dad and the bairn will get in, I'm comfortable it will get sorted. Can't wait to get back to a league game, Hull was a nice prologue to the main event.
There was one where we played 3 and we looked quite good. Hull game it was quite fluid at times too, often looked like a 3
Make sure they can only give it into Wyke's feet. Get running about Power. Put Jones into orbit first tackle. Win.
I'm not too concerned about no recognised full-backs, imo it's a position you can get away with playing wing-backs for an amount of time. (Until we sort it). I'm going 2-0 to SAFC......Haway The Lads!!!!!