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Tuesday 20th April 2021
(1st) Hull City v Sunderland (3rd)
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Sky Bet League One
KCOM Stadium
Kick-Off: 7.45pm
Match Coverage
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage available via www.safc.com.
Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio 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!
It’s all about gaining traction for the play-offs now and what better way to do it than to beat current league leaders Hull City?
The mental aspect to the latest disappointment of losing ground on the automatic places has to be put into perspective by the management in order to begin facing up to the play-offs.
At one point this season our current position was out of reach, and although it’s a blow not to make the top two after our fantastic run, there is still an opportunity to make this a very successful season indeed.
It’s just under six weeks to fit in five League One fixtures plus a potential three play-off games - so a quick turnaround is required.
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Grant McCann’s Hull City have hit their stride just at the right time and haven’t suffered defeat since losing by the only goal of the game at home to Ipswich Town on February 23rd.
Nine wins in eleven since then has put Hull on course to return to the Championship at the first attempt. After winning five of the first six they have never looked back and been a constant at the top end of the table all season.
They have the second best home record behind Peterborough and although they have only scored 27 in 21 fixtures so far at the KCOM, they have only conceded 11 - it could take something special from the lads to get on the scoresheet tonight.
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League One Form Guide
Last five games...
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Sunderland Team News
With injuries as they are I’d suspect the back four picks itself, but with no new injuries elsewhere, it would be a surprise if we didn’t once again see rotation.
Possible XI: Burge, Power, Wright, O’Nien, Hume, Winchester, Leadbitter, Jones, McGeady, Stewart, Wyke
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Hull City Team News
Unsurprisingly, being league leaders, Hull City have been fairly settled recently, but George Honeyman is likely to return to the starting line-up to face the lads. Great.
Possible XI: Ingram Coyle, Jones, Greaves, Elder; Slater, Docherty, Honeyman, Wilks, Lewis Potter, Magennis.
Last Time We Met... at the KCOM Stadium
Saturday 16th September 2017
Sky Bet Championship
Hull City 1 - 1 Sunderland
(Meyler 82’ - Vaughan 17’)
Sunderland: Ruiter, Matthews, Kone, Wilson, Oviedo, McManaman (Jones), Cattermole, Ndong, Honeyman, Williams (Rodwell), Vaughan (Gooch) Substitutes not used: Steele, Love, Browning, Gibson
Hull City: McGregor, Aina, Kingsley, Tomori, Dawson, Hector (Meyler), Larsson, Bowen, Dicko (Campbell), Grosicki, Henriksen (Toral) Substitutes not used: Marshall, Clark, Irvine, Diomande
Attendance: 16,597
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Played For both
Tony Norman
A legend at both clubs after making around 600 appearances between the two. One of my favourite ever Sunderland goalkeepers.
Kevin Kilbane
Kilbane isn’t remembered as fondly on Wearside as he is at his other former clubs, which include Hull City, where he made over 50 appearances between 2009-2012.
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Head to Head... away at Hull City
In all competitions...
Played: 21
Sunderland wins: 8
Draws: 5
Hull City wins: 8
Goals for Sunderland: 25
Goals for Hull City: 27
Match Betting
The bookmakers fancy Hull to take all three points tonight at 9/2, fancy while Sunderland are 11/2, and the draw 3/1.
In terms of correct score, it’s 11/2 for Hull to win with the only goal of the game and 13/2 for Sunderland to win by the same scoreline. It’s also unsurprising that a 1-1 draw is favourite at 9/2. A goalless draw is priced at 6/1.
Based on Hull’s defensive record it’s going to be tough but Charlie Wyke is 7/2 to open the scoring for Sunderland and 11/8 anytime scorer.
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Match Prediction
We controlled the game at Blackpool but were completely toothless up top, so I think we’ll have a similar performance without the mistake at the back.