Match Preview: Sunderland v Wigan Athletic - all you need to know ahead of kick-off!

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Saturday 15th October 2022

(13th) Sunderland v Wigan Athletic (9th)

Championship

Stadium of Light

Kick-Off: 15:00

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Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets available via www.safc.com.

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage available via www.safc.com to residents outside the UK and Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man only.

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.sbnation.com!

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The build-up...

Despite the fact we seem relatively content with how the opening quarter of the season has panned out, it is easy to forget that we still only have one victory at the Stadium of Light on the board in our six attempts so far. If the league table was based on home form alone, we’d currently sit 18^th in the Championship.

The 3-0 win over Rotherham United at the end of August remains as that solitary win on home soil and today presents an opportunity against a side who came up from League One alongside us last season.

This opportunity, however, comes against a backdrop of a run in form that has seen one win in the last six, and although performances have generally been ok in that time, it would be nice to start putting some points on the board.

Goals also seem an issue at the Stadium of Light this term, where we have failed to score in three of the last four home games and only four sides have scored fewer in their own backyard than we have so far this season.

To get back on track, the Lads come up against the side who boast the best away record in the division, with four wins and one defeat in their six fixtures on the road so far. Only four sides have scored more than Wigan away from home this season also.

Having said that, their previous fixture away from the DW Stadium resulted in a 2-1 defeat at struggling Hull City at the beginning of this month, so there’s hope that the inconsistent form continues into this afternoon’s fixture.

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The betting...

The bookies have the home side as favourites this afternoon at 23/20, with Wigan priced at 12/5 to pick up all three points and the draw is also 11/5.

Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images

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Head to head... at the Stadium of Light

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 5
• Draws: 3
• Wigan Athletic wins: 5
• Sunderland goals: 18
• Wigan Athletic goals: 16

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Last time we met... at the Stadium of Light

Saturday 7th August 2021

League One

Sunderland 2-1 Wigan Athletic

[McGeady (pen) 17’, Stewart 53’ - Edwards 15’]

Sunderland: Burge, Winchester (Diamond), Flanagan, Doyle, Neil, Gooch, Evans, O’Nien, McGeady (O’Brien), Embleton (Wright), Stewart Substitutes not used: Patterson, Hawkes, Pritchard, Grigg

Wigan Athletic: Amos, Darikwa, Pearce, Naylor (Cousins), Whatmough, Long, Lang, Power, Wyke, Keane (Jones), Edwards (Humphrys) Substitutes not used: Jones, Robinson, Aasgaard, Massey

Attendance: 31,549

Photo by Will Matthews/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Played for both...

Emerson Thome

After making the journey over to Portugal from Brazil, Emerson Thome joined Ron Atkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday from Benfica in 1997.

His good form there prompted Chelsea to splash out on the central defender two years later and then Peter Reid spent £4.5 million to bring him to Sunderland in 2000. Thome had spells with Bolton, Wigan and Derby before retiring in 2007.