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Week Thirty-Five Recap
| Pundit | Last Week's Profit/Loss | Current Balance |
| Luke Bowley | £18.00 | £139.04 |
| Karl Jones | -£20.00 | £53.25 |
| David Boyle | -£5.00 | £21.67 |
| Craig Clark | -£5.00 | £17.71 |
| Chris Weatherspoon | N/A | -£19.50 |
| Simon Walsh | -£20.00 | -£76.00 |
Well, it would be fair to say that Sunderland let us all down on Monday night, especially our betting team - all apart from Luke, surprise, surprise, who nailed a tidy £18.00 profit having backed both teams to score. Bowley's lead at the top looks unassailable at this stage but you never know, things have been known to change very quickly in this feature!
Onto tonight's picks:
David Boyle
Well the honeymoon period was well and truly brought to an end at a sodden Villa Park on Monday night with a quite dismal performance which also saw Stephane Sessegnon dismissed, a decision which was upheld following an SAFC appeal. Quite how Di Canio will shuffle his pack without the talismatic forward remains to be seen. That said I can see tonight being a tight affair and am going go go with under 2.5 goals.
- Sunderland vs Stoke - Under 2.5 goals - 4/6 - £10 Stake
Simon Walsh
Back down to earth with a bump. Not only was I pretty confident about the Villa game but also that my pick would come in. That's life though eh? Time for both myself and Di Canio to get things back on track.
So it's time to go for broke a little and hope for a big win tonight to restore some order. I'm going for a special on this one with Adam Johnson to score in a Sunderland win. Simple as that. Priced handily at 5/1, I think with Johnson in a more advanced role he gets himself on the scoresheet, and I'm rarely going to back us to lose!
- Adam Johnson To Score & Sunderland Win - 5/1 - £10 Stake
Craig Clark
Well, none of us expected that, did we? Betting on Sunderland really is a minefield. Just when you get your hopes up and a bit of optimism filters through the club, we concede 6 at Villa Park and lose one of our most important attacking players for the remainder of the season.
It's the lack of Sessegnon as much as anything that worries me going into Monday night's clash with Stoke City. He ripped a lumbering back line to shreds when we played West Ham at home in January and without his magic, Johnson in particular really needs to come to the fore. Their away record is awful, but ours on a Monday night is even worse; a winless run of 17 stretching back to 2002. 3 Johnson inspired points should just about see us safe. Let's hope this doesn't backfire as spectacularly as it did last week.
- Adam Johnson to score, Sunderland to win 1-0 - 20/1 - £5 Stake
Luke Bowley
After last Monday's mauling by Aston Villa, Sunderland will be looking to bounce back against Stoke. Di Canio will certainly keep the team focused and will be expecting a much better performance. However the loss of Stephane Sessegnon is a huge loss, and someone will have to step up if Sunderland are win without their key creative threat.
Despite back-to-back wins, Stoke still haven't impressed this season, and they don't really have anything to play for on Monday night. Despite how awful Sunderland looked last week, and despite the loss of Sessegnon, I'd fancy this team to bounce back with a very narrow, ugly win.
- Sunderland to win to nil - 23/10 - £5 Stake
Karl Jones
After a hammering off Villa, and being denied Stephane Sessegnon for the rest of the season as a result of his sending off, Sunderland find themselves going into their umpteenth must-win game of the season. As a result, I expect it to be tight, scrappy, nervy - you know, one of those games for which Sunderland are renowned. My play here will be Craig Gardner getting the only goal, somewhat making up for last week's horror show.
- Craig Gardner to score first, Sunderland to win 1-0 - 55/1 - £5 Stake