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

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Saturday 8th October 2022

(6th) Swansea City v Sunderland (8th)

Championship

Liberty Stadium

Kick-Off: 15:00

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Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets sold out.

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.com!

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The build-up...

We didn’t face Swansea in a competitive fixture for 28 years between 1983-2011 and then met on twelve occasions in six years, exclusively in the Premier League. In fact we haven’t met outside the top flight at Swansea since 1979 when Ken Knighton’s Sunderland went down 3-1 at Vetch Field against John Toshack’s side.

Since that meeting in 1979, our record against Swansea doesn’t make for pleasant reading, with only two victories in 18 meetings home and away. Our last victory in South Wales came under Sam Allardyce back in January 2016 where a Jermain Defoe hattrick helped us to a 4-2 win.

On the current situation with the Lads, there appears to be a couple of ways of looking at our recent form. There is one that focuses on the fact we have had two successive goalless draws on home soil and there’s another that places the emphasis on going four games unbeaten.

There’s no doubt that gaining two points from six over the last week has been a disappointing return, but there is a hope that lessons learned might result in us being better off over the course of a season.

This afternoon however, we’re back on the road and we boast the fifth best record in the division away from home, with only Bristol City having scored more goals on their travels so far this term.

Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images

After two consecutive seasons of falling at the last hurdle in the play-offs, Swansea made the decision to part ways with Steve Cooper last summer, who has of course gone on to reach the Premier League with Nottingham Forest. Russel Martin was the man to replace Cooper and in his first season in charge last year it didn’t quite go to plan.

A 15th place finish in the table came as a shock to Swansea and with this season being the fifth consecutive year back in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League, Swansea are in a rush to return while trying to rebuild under a new manager in charge.

So far this year they have had a very similar start to the season to ourselves, with only a point more gained on the road and the same on home soil. This means, much like ourselves, Swansea haven’t collected as many points as they would have liked at the Liberty Stadium with three defeats out of the six they have played there so far.

There are also only six clubs that have scored fewer in the division on home soil - to put it into context, Sunderland have scored four more away from home in the same amount of games than Swansea have at the Liberty Stadium, suggesting if we can get our noses in front we may have some success this afternoon.

Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images

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The betting...

The bookies have the home side as favourites this afternoon at 5/4, with the Lads priced at 11/5 to pick up all three points and the draw is also 11/5.

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Head to head... at Swansea

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 4
• Draws: 6
• Swansea City wins: 7
• Sunderland goals: 23
• Swansea City goals: 39

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Last time we met... at the Liberty Stadium

Saturday 10th December 2016

Premier League

Swansea City 3-0 Sunderland

[Sigurdsson (pen) 51’, Llorente 54’, 80’]

Sunderland: Pickford, Jones, Denayer, Knoe, Djilobodji, van Aanholt, Ndong (Kirchhoff), Larsson (Januzaj), Pienaar (Manquillo), Anichebe, Defoe Substitutes not used: Mannone, O’Shea, Khazri, Borini

Swansea City: Fabianski, Rangel, Taylor, Britton, Mawson, Amat, Routledge, Fulton, Llorente (McBurnie), Sigurdsson, Barrow (Montero) Substitutes not used: Nordfeldt, Naughton, Van Der Hoorn, Cork, Fer

Attendance: 20,453

Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images

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Played for both...

Colin Pascoe

Pascoe began his career at Swansea in the early 1980’s and came through the ranks to make around 200 appearances before Denis Smith made his move in 1988.

The Welsh international helped the Lads move up from Division Three up to the top flight, but injuries hampered his later years at Roker before he returned to Swansea in 1993.

After hanging up his boots in the late 1990’s Pascoe went into coaching, working primarily with Brendan Rodgers, most notably at Swansea and Liverpool.

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

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Danny Graham

Gateshead-born Danny Graham started out at Middlesbrough in the mid-2000’s before moving permanently to Carlisle United after a number of early loan moves in 2007. A couple of successful years at Brunton Park attracted the interest of clubs up the pyramid, and it was Watford who swooped to seal his services in 2009.

Two more successful years at Vicarage Road caught the attention of Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City who had just achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2011, and he paid £3.5 million to seal the deal.

In January 2013, Martin O’Neill parted with £5 million to bring Graham to the Stadium of Light, but O’Neill only lasted seven games into Graham’s spell on Wearside and in the summer he made his first loan move to Hull City.

More loan spells followed as Sunderland churned through the managers and he eventually moved to Blackburn Rovers in 2016 where he played under Tony Mowbray for a few years until 2020, when he returned to Sunderland before hanging up his boots in early 2021.

Danny Graham talked about his career on this week’s Roker Rapport Podcast, which you can listen to here.

Photo by AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

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