Blackburn 2 Sunderland 0: Highlights after Ben Brereton Diaz and Scott Wharton goals plus Aji Alese injury

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship match at Blackburn.

The Black Cats got back to winning ways with a 2-1 win over Wigan on Saturday and will be looking to make back-to-back victories tonight.

The game will see Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray return to Blackburn following five and a half years at the club.

We’ll have all the build-up, live updates and post-match reaction throughout the evening.

We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.

The Black Cats will once again have to play without a recognised striker this evening, yet Ellis Simms is making progress after being sidelined with a toe injury.

“He isn’t too far away from being fit to be honest,” said Mowbray in his pre-match press conference.

“In the next few games fingers crossed he’s on the bench and he won’t be that far away.”

Ross Stewart and Dan Ballard also remain unavailable, with both likely to be back training just before the World Cup break. Mowbray may want to give them that three-week period to get fully up to speed, though.

Sunderland captain Corry Evans will be available to face his former club after missing the Wigan match due to a suspension, yet Lynden Gooch is a doubt with a foot injury.

Jack Clarke and Luke O’Nien are also just one booking away from a one-match suspension.

Mowbray left Blackburn at the end of last season after his contract expired.

Here’s what the Sunderland boss had to say about his former club:

“They are in the top six.

“They are more than capable of having a good season, as they had a good season last season.

“Brereton-Diaz is really important for them and scored the majority of their goals. Last season he scored 21 before Christmas and then picked up an injury in February and missed 12 matches at a crucial period last season.

“They have a lot of good talented young players coming through.

“I look at their team as a very young team, it was the second youngest team in the Championship last year on average over the 46 games.

“They have some really talented individuals.”

Rovers beat Middlesbrough 2-1 on Saturday to move up to fifth in the Championship.

Key defender Daniel Ayala has been sidelined through injury, though, while captain Lewis Travis is suspended after picking up five yellow cards.

To find out more we caught up with Scott Sumner from Rovers fanzine 4,000 Holes on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.

You can listen to the full episode here

Here’s what he said when asked about Blackburn’s start to the season:

“It’s really been strange because if you look at the sequence of the last 10 games they have all gone won, lost, won, lost.

“We haven’t drawn a game all season which is kind of working out well because there has been a big contrast between wins and losses.

“There have been some great wins in there against some decent teams like Watford and West Brom at the start, and Rotherham was 3-0.

“But then the losses have been absolutely terrible, like the last two Tuesdays away to Cardiff and Wigan have just been dire performances.

“That sequence of results really does reflect the performances but overall we can’t complain.

“We didn’t think we’d be as high as fifth at this point in the season.”

Here’s what Blackburn boss Jon Dahl Tomasson has to say about Mowbray and Sunderland ahead of tonight’s match:

On Mowbray: “We should welcome him back, he did a great job here. Hopefully, we will give him a warm welcome.

“He worked extremely hard with his staff for five years, which is a long time in the Championship. He built a good foundation for the club.”

On Sunderland: “We know what Sunderland are good at, they are quite good away. They create chances and have good individuality.

“Each opponent will also give away opportunities, we need to do the right things to create chances and entertain the fans.”

Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match

Predicted Blackburn XI: Kaminski; Brittain, Phillips, Hyam, S.Wharton, Pickering; Morton, A.Wharton, Hedges; Brereton Diaz, Gallagher

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; O’Nien, Batth, Alese, Cirkin; Evans, Neil; Roberts, Pritchard, Embleton; Clarke

So it’s one change from the side which started against Wigan on Saturday.

Evans comes back into the starting XI following his suspension, with Gooch missing out with a foot injury.

It looks like Luke O’Nien will move across to right-back, with Aji Alese starting at centre-back alongside Danny Batth.

Abdoullah Ba has replaced Dajaku on the bench.

Blackburn have made four changes following their win at Middlesbrough on Saturday, with 19-year-old midfielder Jake Garrett set to make his Championship debut.