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Sunderland v Peterborough United - Sky Bet League One
Stadium of Light
Kick-Off: 3pm - Saturday 26th September, 2020
Match Coverage
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage available via www.safc.com
Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Newcastle (not online)
Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.com!
Sunderland return to action at the Stadium of Light today for the visit of one of the bookies pre-season favourites for a top-six position, Peterborough United. Although the fixture is only three games into the campaign, it still presents an opportunity for both sides to land an early blow in the race for promotion.
Phil Parkinson and his Peterborough counterpart Darren Ferguson will both be looking to build on victories against sides tipped to do well this season in the form of Oxford United and Fleetwood Town respectively.
Sunderland are still looking for a first win over Peterborough United in League One and three points today would see our start to the season feel like we mean business this season.
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Sunderland Team News
Phil Parkinson has some tough calls to make after our performance at Oxford last week. Does he trust the same side to perform to the levels we did in the second half or make changes to ensure it happens from the off this week?
If the manager does make a change it could well see Lynden Gooch return to the starting line-up and possibly Aiden O’Brien could be the man to drop out in that scenario, but it’s likely the aim will be to field the same line-up if possible.
Although it’s unlikely he would have appeared in the starting XI, there has been the disappointing news that Morgan Feeney is ruled out for a number of months with a serious hamstring injury picked up appearing in Monday’s U23 game.
George Dobson is another ruled out, although through suspension, and the only doubt for the weekend is Max Power who is leaving it until as late as possible to declare his fitness for the game. His contribution so far in the system deployed, will no doubt mean player and manager will be eager to have him involved this weekend.
Possible XI: Lee Burge, Tom Flanagan, Bailey Wright, Jordan Willis, Luke O’Nien, Grant Leadbitter, Max Power (c), Denver Hume, Chris Maguire, Aiden O’Brien, Danny Graham
Peterborough United Team News
League One big spenders Peterborough United have had issues early in the season with injuries and also players who were ruled out through testing positive for COVID-19, but most of these players are beginning to return to the fold.
Darren Ferguson has confirmed that Ricky-Jade Jones and Frazer Blake-Tracy are available for the trip up north as they and others who are returning managed a run out in a friendly at Boreham Wood on Tuesday.
Possible XI: Christy Pym, Frankie Kent, Mark Beevers, Nathan Thompson, Dan Butler, Louis Reed, Jack Taylor, Ryan Broom, Sammie Szmodics, Jonson Clarke-Harris, Siriki Dembele
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Last Time We Met...
Saturday 15th February 2020: Sky Bet League One
Peterborough United 3 - 0 Sunderland
(Maddison (2), Knight - O’Nien and Wyke sent-off for Sunderland)
Sunderland: J. McLaughlin, O’Nien, Willis, Ozturk, C. McLaughlin, Gooch (Grigg), Leadbitter, Power, McGeady (Dobson), Wyke, McNulty (Flanagan) Substitutes not used: Burge, Baldwin, McGeouch, Embleton
Peterborough United: Pym, Mason (Thompson), Butler, Reed, Kent, Beevers, Knight (Burrows), Maddison, Toney, Eisa (Dembele), Boyd Substitutes not used: O’Malley, Bennett, Tasdemir, Ward
Match Betting
The bookmakers have Sunderland as favourites to collect all three points at 21/20, with a Peterborough United victory priced at 13/5 and the draw almost the same at 12/5.
For the home side, Danny Graham is favourite to score at any time at 5/4 closely followed by Chris Maguire at 7/5. If you fancy Lynden Gooch to repeat his exploits of last week he is 2/1 to score at anytime.
In terms of the away side they have a whole host of players who are potential goalscorers with Eisa and Clarke-Harris joint favourites at 2/1, followed by Dembele at 11/4 and Szmodics at 15/4.
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Match Prediction
There’s a lot of attacking potential on show for the away side and it could come down to the continuation of the impressive form shown so far by Sunderland’s back three. There’s talk of goals, but they could just end up cancelling each other out, I’m going for a goalless stalemate.
Sunderland 0 - 0 Peterborough United