Sunderland: Westwood, O’Shea, Bramble, Brown, Bardsley, Larsson, Colback, Vaughan, Richardson, Sessegnon, Wickham

Subs: Kilgallon, Ji, Meyler, McClean, Carson, Elmohamady, Noble

Blackburn: Robinson, Lowe, Samba, Dann, Givet, Salgado, Dunn, Pedersen, Vukcevic, Formica, Yakubu

Subs: Bunn, Olsson, Blackman, Goodwillie, Roberts, Hanley, Henley

Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire)

Sunderland say Connor Wickham did not suffer “serious” knee damage at Old Trafford.

Initial scans suggested the damage was not as serious as first thought, and further examinations have revealed no lasting problem.

A statement released via the club’s official website read: “Sunderland have announced that further investigations have shown that Connor Wickham has not suffered any serious damage to his knee.

“The player has embarked on a rehabilitation programme as he recovers from the injury.

“Wickham left the field at Old Trafford after just 90 seconds on Saturday and underwent scans on Monday.”

In a bizarre few weeks that had seen the Red Devils ship in 6 against City and send fans to sleep against Galati, the lads must of fancied their chances when visiting the theatre of dreams, making it an anniversary to forget for Fergie.

Despite parking the bus in front of goal, thoroughly deserving a point in the process. We were undone by one of our own, Wes Brown back to his old stomping ground, handing Fergie an anniversary present, with the solitary goal in the fixture.

In a game on bonfire night, that didn’t produce many fireworks we were dealt another casualty to add to an ever-growing injury list. Young Connor Wickham stretchered off with a knee injury with only 2 minutes on the board. Bruce resisted temptation to revert to a 4-5-1 and stuck Ji up top with Nicklas Bendtner. A move that nearly paid off, with a lacklustre United failing to get out the traps, we had a few half chances that we should have made their keeper work for.

The managers had to change their half time team talks, as on the stroke of half time Wes Brown diverted a Welbeck flick on past Westwood into the back of his own-net. But as the lads went in for half time, everybody felt an equaliser was on the horizon, as we gave as good as we got.

Unfortunately it never came. We defended as resiliently as we did in the first half, the game looked as if it was going to peter out into a dull 1-0 victory to the champions, with 20 minutes to go the game burst into life. Firstly we were awarded a penalty after Seb Larsson’s cross appeared to hit a United hand, only to have it rescinded after ref Lee Mason had a word with his assistant. Shortly after Larsson again drilled in a cross for Bendtner, who couldn’t connect with the ball.

A superb double-save by Irish stopper Westwood prevented the champions from doubling their lead, which would of effectively ended the match as a contest. After parrying a powerful strike from Rooney, he then recovered to save Evra’s follow up, by tipping the left-back’s effort over the bar. Late into the game, Darren Fletcher handballed just outside the box, but Larsson couldn’t hit his free kick past the wall, which sent the home fans back to London with a smile on their face.

Although it was a backs against the wall job at Old Trafford, we can take many positives out of the game. Fulham visit the Stadium of Light on the 19th of November, a game we can surely win!

Man of the Match – Westwood – Looked composed throughout.

By Rob Munro

Sunderland’s Simon Mignolet is waiting to discover long he could be sidelined for after nose surgery.

He uffered the injury in a collision with Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey during Saturday’s 2-2 Barclays Premier League draw at the Stadium of Light.

A club statement read on Monday: “Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet underwent surgery yesterday to repair a broken nose. The operation was successful, but he will require further scans to assess the full extent of his injuries.”

Steve Bruce expects Aston Villa striker Darren Bent to face a hot reception from Sunderland’s fans.

“It’s football so I think he’ll be expecting it,” said Bruce, who was also keen to highlight what Bent achieved in his 18 months at Sunderland, scoring 36 goals in 63 appearances.

“I think we have to acknowledge what Darren Bent did here, too. He was terrific here for 18 months, there’s no disputing that, and, in my opinion, could have been one of the greats if he’d stuck around. He didn’t, it’s football, and sometimes it happens.

“All our disappointment was that it ended so quickly. But the great thing about football is we move on.”

]]> http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/10/29/video-preview-sunderland-vs-aston-villa/feed/ 0 http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/10/28/stat-attack-sunderland-v-aston-villa/ http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/10/28/stat-attack-sunderland-v-aston-villa/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:53:48 +0000 admin http://redandwhitebarmy.com/?p=807 • Sunderland scored two late goals against Bolton to secure their first away win of the season in their last Barclays Premier League fixture

• Those last goals were reflected in the fact that Sunderland covered more ground in the second half than in the first half (53.131km v 53.828km), whereas on average over the season they usually show a 7% decrease in ground covered in the second half

• Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson covered the most ground for Sunderland in the game with 10.413km. He remains Sunderland’s top ranked player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index in 16th place, up 6 places from last week.

• Stephane Sessegnon scored his first Barclays Premier League goal of the season in that game, from an unlucky run of 22 efforts at goal with just 41% on target and no goals

• Nicklas Bendtner scored Sunderland’s second goal, and his second of the season

• Aston Villa suffered a home defeat to Midlands rivals West Brom in their last game. Villa covered 100.959km in that game, with Stiliyan Petrov covering the most distance with 10.513km

• Darren Bent scored his third Barclays Premier League goal of the season in that game

]]> http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/09/09/video-preview-sunderland-vs-chelsea/feed/ 0 http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/09/09/lawro-predicts-sunderland-to-draw-with-chelsea/ http://redandwhitebarmy.com/2011/09/09/lawro-predicts-sunderland-to-draw-with-chelsea/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:29:10 +0000 admin http://redandwhitebarmy.com/?p=801

BBC football pundit Mark Lawrenson has predicted that Sunderland will draw with Chelsea this weekend.

He told BBC Sport Online: “Sunderland will be fine this season. I know plenty of people are pointing to their form at the back end of last season and the start of this wondering if there are problems there, but these things will take time to settle in.

“I’m very interested to see how Nicklas Bendtner, on a season-long loan from Arsenal, fares.

“He has a very high opinion of himself, scored a couple in midweek for Denmark which will help his confidence, and he’ll be one of those this season that either sinks or swims. Maybe regular games will equal regular goals for Bendtner, which in turn may equal growing up a little bit as well. That might be the key for both him and Sunderland.

“The manager Steve Bruce has the right chairman in Niall Quinn, a real football man, so he’ll be just fine. The time to sit down and review for Sunderland – and for all teams – is 10 games in.

“Chelsea, too, are a bit of a work in progress. They will be there or thereabouts this season, but I just feel new boss Andre Villas-Boas is trying to change their style a little.

“Where before Chelsea could be a little laborious in their approach play, I think Villas-Boas is trying to instill a bit of urgency and a bit of pace about their play, which is all designed to fit around Fernando Torres. He needs early balls alongside the centre-backs and the full-backs, because the slower the build-up the less effective Torres is. And if you spend £50m on a player you have to build the team around them don’t you?

“With both teams settling in a touch, I’ll go for a draw in this one.

“Prediction: 1-1″

Manager Harry Redknapp admitted that there was significant interest inPeter Crouch, who is wanted by Sunderland and Stoke, and that he could leave the club.

He told Sky Sports News: “It’s up to Crouchy. I’ve had Peter at a few clubs. Good player, great guy as well.

“But I suppose with Adebayor coming in, it’s an area that we are a little bit overloaded in and he’s one that people want, so if we could do a deal with someone, then it’s a possibility.”