Sunderland v Swansea

[jackaway]

Sunderland v Swansea Sat 24 Feb 15:00
Sunderland have just sacked their manager Michael Beale, only appointed in December. So once again we face a team with an interim manager in charge.
Two important away games coming up, Sunderland this Saturday and Watford the following Tuesday.
We need points on the board to ease the pressure before playing lowly Blackburn, who drew at Cardiff last night.
Sunderland last 6 home matches
W4 D0 L2 F9 A6
Swans last 6 away matches
W1 D3 L2 F7 A13
Swans last away match was a 0-1 win at Hull, first win in 6 away games.
Hull won 1-2 at Southampton last night to move back into the play-offs.
WestBrom won 0-3 at Plymouth last night to consolidate their place in the play-offs.
I’m clinging to the fact that we’ve beaten both West Brom and Hull recently and are therefore capable of digging ourselves out of trouble. Over to you Mr Williams.

[jackaway]

The teams

Sunderland :
Anthony Patterson, Jobe Bellingham, Luke O'Nien (c), Nazariy Rusyn, Abdoullah Ba, Jenson Seelt, Dan Neil, Callum Styles, Trai Hume, Leo Hjelde, Pierre Ekwah
Subs:
Nathan Bishop, Timothee Pembele, Hemir, Mason Burstow, Romaine Mundle, Adil Aouchiche, Chris Rigg, Caden Kelly, Thomas Lavery

Swansea:
Carl Rushworth, Ben Cabango, Joe Allen, Matt Grimes (c), Jamie Paterson, Josh Tymon, Przemyslaw Placheta, Liam Cullen, Nathan Wood, Kyle Naughton, Ronald
Subs:
Andy Fisher, Jay Fulton, Harry Darling, Jerry Yates, Charlie Patino, Mykola Kuharevich, Charles Sagoe Jr, Ollie Cooper, Filip Lissah

[jackaway]

Sunderland 1 (O’Nien 78’) - Swansea 2 (Ronald 19’ 28’)
Swans should have had a hat full and been out of sight as they dominated the first half. Second half different story as Sunderland changed formation and it was their turn to dominate.
We held out and gained a welcome three points, marred by four other teams around us in the table also getting wins.
We are four points from the drop. If we can maintain the first half dominance we showed at Sunderland for the whole ninety plus minutes in our forthcoming matches and not run out of steam we should be able to gain further points and safety.

[jackaway]

Match highlights

https://www.skysports.com/watch/vide...hip-highlights

[Estoban]

Boy did we need that win with teams around us in the table also winning.
Didn’t see the match, we’ll done Ronald, but the highlights showed we should have won more convincingly with so many missed chances.
We ran out of steam second half, also our substitutions did not improve us, theirs did, judging by the various match reports.
That win will give us a confidence boost for the next match, it’s ***** we keep up the improvement in our play

[Iolo]

Head Coach’s reaction here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tdJ-Kv...ature=youtu.bew

[Iolo]

Highlights are here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rKFlNf...ature=youtu.be

[Iolo]

Crucial win boys in front of a stunned 41k crowd. Well done the JA travelling all that way. I’ve done it a few times and it’s several hours both ways, a lovely part of the country though, especially enjoyo with a win to take home with you.
Nervy finish but we held on for the points, roll on Blackburn next.