Sunderland v Bristol Rovers – Skybet League One
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Last time out Sunderland beat Oxford and Bristol Rovers beat Blackpool.
Centre-back Jordan Willis scored the only goal of the game as Sunderland, who remain fifth in the table, cut the gap on leaders Rotherham United to just three points.
Bailey Wright is set for an extended spell on the sidelines with Phil Parkinson admitting that the early signs ‘do not look good’ after the defender went off with an ankle injury at Oxford United.
January signing Wright limped off after suffering ankle ligament damage five minutes from the end of the Black Cats’ 1-0 win at the Kassam Stadium, with Alim Ozturk replacing him to help the Wearsiders to keep a seventh clean sheet in eight games and keep the pressure on at the top of League One.
The Gas, who have struggled of late after a good start to the season, now find themselves mid table and 11 points off a playoff place.
Phil Parkinson:
“It doesn’t look good, that’s all I can say,” said Parkinson of Wright’s injury.
“Obviously it’s a bit early (to make an assessment) but it looks like quite a bad injury, which is a blow, but Alim has come on and done well.”
“Bailey has been excellent for us, but if he is out for a period, Alim comes in and there’s no problem with that at all.”
“Alim has a great personality, he is a great lad, and while he has been out of the team he has trained well and that’s really important.”
“We have gone with the same team for quite a period of time now and sometimes it can be difficult to keep those other lads going, but as I keep saying, they have been outstanding and they have driven the other lads on.”
Ben Garner:
“Well done, enjoy it, but then focus on Sunderland. We spoke before the game about focusing on the present and not what’s gone before or what’s coming.”
“So they can enjoy that, I’m absolutely over the moon for them, and then we turn our focus very quickly to Sunderland.”
“It’s the first time that I had to lose my temper at half time because we didn’t do things well in the first half, even basic things, corners and throw ins that we’d worked on, the players didn’t do their jobs within those set pieces and we can’t do that.”
“We’ve got to be spot on with everything we do. It’s ironic that the game that we’ve got the win in, was probably the game that we’ve got the most to correct, but we will do that this week, and as I say, moving onto Sunderland, we try and push on with another result.”
Form.GIF
Prutton predicts: meh
Match Appointments:
Referee: BEN TONER
Assistant Referees: Richard Wigglesworth and Robert Atkin
Fourth Official: Stephen Wade
Team Line ups
Sunderland: McLaughlin, O’Nien, Flanagan, Ozturk, Willis, Hume, Power, Dobson, Gooch, Maguire, Wyke.
Team.GIF
Subs: Burge, McLaughlin, Scowen, Lynch, Watmore, Semenyo, Lafferty.
Injured: Embleton, Wright
Bristol Rovers: Blackman, Little, Kilgour, Craig, Leahy, Clarke, Upson, Ogogo, Rodman, Clarke-Harris, Mitchell-Lawson
Subs: van Stappershoef, Holmes-Dennis, Ginnelly, Menayese, Abraham, Hargreaves, Barrett.
Injured: Sercombe
Betting Odds:
Home 1/2 Away 5/1 Draw 3/1
My two pence:
After a tough game at Oxford hopefully we should be in for an easier game where we are coasting before half time.
Rovers won their first game in 14 matches last week against 10 man Blackpool, but we should have enough to beat them.
My guess is a 3-0 home win
Ha’way the Lads
#1 Last edited: Thursday at 10:41 PM
RTB, Wednesday at 9:50 PM
