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

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Saturday 14th January 2023

(8th) Sunderland v Swansea City (15th)

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 is 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!

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The build-up...

It would be fair to say that our last meeting with Swansea, back in October at the Swansea.com stadium, wasn’t one of our better performances of the season. This was especially true in the first half as we went into the break trailing 2-0.

It also didn’t improve our record against the Swans, which now reads two victories in the last 19 home and away stretching back to 1979. On home soil, we have to go back to the Martin O’Neill era to find our last home win over Swansea when we ran out 2-0 winners back in 2021, thanks to goals from Stephane Sessegnon and Craig Gardner - the win before that we have to go back to 1964.

It wouldn’t be a revelation to say our home form hasn’t been great generally this season, in fact we’d be 17th in the table if it was based solely on how sides fare on their own patch, but recent fixtures provide optimism.

Deserved wins over Blackburn, Millwall and Wigan are interspersed with results such as West Brom and Burnley where we managed to avoid victory despite a good performance and a commanding position. The defeat to the rivals of today's opponents, Cardiff City, can maybe be viewed as a day where we simply weren’t on it and didn’t deserve any reward.

Generally, we’re on a run of only two defeats in the last eleven games (including last week's FA Cup tie) and sitting only five points behind Blackburn Rovers who sit 3rd in the table, which means we have extra incentive to keep this run going.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Things haven’t gone well for our visitors this afternoon since we last met in October in South Wales. Three months ago, Swansea extended their lead over the Lads to four points as they solidified their place in the top six following a comfortable win in the early days of the Tony Mowbray era.

Since the end of October, Russell Martin’s side have won one the last eleven (including last week's draw against Bristol City in the FA Cup) and have dropped to 15th in the table. However, it says a lot about the nature of the Championship when you consider that, despite the slide, they are still only four points off a play-off spot and three behind us.

A win this afternoon could be the catalyst to propel the Swans back into contention, but their away form won’t provide much confidence to those making the trip up north today. Russell Martin’s side haven’t taken maximum points on the road since their trip to Watford on the 5th of October and have won three and drawn six from 13 away from home this season.

Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images

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The betting...

The bookies fancy the Lads to pick up maximum points this afternoon with odds of 6/4 for a home win, with the visitors priced at 17/10 to take the spoils and the draw is around 23/10.

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Head to head... at Sunderland

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins:9
• Draws: 5
• Swansea City wins: 3
• Sunderland goals: 29
• Swansea City goals: 14

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

Saturday 13th May 2017

Premier League

Sunderland 0-2 Swansea City

[Llorente 9’, Naughton 45’]

Sunderland: Pickford, Jones, Denayer (Gibson), Kone, O’Shea, Manquillo, Larsson, Ndong, Borini, Defoe, Anichebe (Khazri) Substitutes not used: Mannone, Oviedo, Djilobodji, Rodwell, Gooch

Swansea City: Fabianski, Naughton, Olsson, Ki (Fer), Fernandez, Mawson, Britton (Cork), Carroll, Llorente (Narsingh), Sigurdsson, Ayew Substitutes not used: Nordfeldt, Kingsley, Van Der Hoorn, Baston

Attendance: 38,781

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

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Played for both...

Colin Pascoe

Pascoe began his career at Swansea in the early 1980’s and after progressing through the ranks, the skillful forward made around 200 appearances for the Swans before Denis Smith brought him to Roker in 1988.

The Welsh international played his part in our journey 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 at the likes of Swansea and Liverpool.

Andy Melville

Melville began his career with Swansea City where he spent his first four years ahead of a move to Oxford United in the summer of 1990 for £275,000. It would be three years before Terry Butcher made a move to sign the Welsh international for an initial fee of £500,000 and also included Anton Rogan in exchange.

Melville would spend a successful six years on Wearside making over 200 appearances. A classy defender on his day, his final season would see him miss only two League games as Sunderland won the second tier with 105 points in 1999.

Spells at Fulham, West Ham United and Nottingham Forest followed Sunderland before retirement in 2005.

Photo by Barrington Coombs/EMPICS via Getty Images

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