Bristol City 2 Sunderland 3: Story of the match after Ellis Simms double and Ross Stewart goal at Ashton Gate
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Sunderland took the lead inside four minutes when debutant Ellis Simms, on loan from Everton, opened the scoring.
The hosts drew level six minutes later through Andi Weimann, before Chris Martin put the Robins ahead.
Simms then added a second, allowing Ross Stewart to head home the winner 18 minutes from time.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Bristol City 2 (Weimann, 10) (Martin, 51) Sunderland 3 (Simms, 4, 53)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Gooch, Ballard, Batth, Cirkin, Clarke, Evans, Neil, Pritchard, Simms, Stewart
- Subs: Bass, Wright, Alese, O’Nien, Dajaku, Embleton, Roberts
- Bristol City XI: Bentley, Vyner, Atkinson, Naismith, Sykes, Massengo, Williams, Dasilva, Scott, Martin, Weimann
- Subs: O’Leary, Wilson, King, Klose, Conway, Tanner, Wells
What to make of that side
So it’s one change from the Sunderland side which started against Coventry last weekend.
Ellis Simms comes in to make his debut in place of Elliot Embleton, who drops to the bench.
It looks like the Black Cats will still play with a back three, with Gooch and Clarke as the wing-backs.
Leon Dajaku is back on the bench in place of Trai Hume, who isn’t included in the matchday squad, while Carl Winchester, Jay Matete and Jack Diamond also miss out.
Bristol City are unchanged from their 2-1 defeat at Hull last time out.
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; Ballard, Batth, Cirkin; Gooch, Evans, O’Nien, Clarke; Roberts, Pritchard; Stewart
Predicted Bristol City XI: Bentley; Naismith, Klose, Atkinson; Dasilva, James, Williams, Sykes, Scott; Martin, Weimann
More on Bristol City
To find out more about today’s opponents, we caught up with Jordan Jones from our sister title Bristol World on our latest episode of The Roar Podcast.
Here’s what he said when asked how the Robins will line up:
“It’s a back three and and wing-backs, two central midfielders and then like a No 10.
“On the opening day of the season Andreas Weimann, who was the No 10 last year, played up front and they played Alex Scot in the No 10 position.
“One player who could come in is Nahki Wells but he doesn’t seem to get a run of starts and there has been a lot of speculation about him leaving.”
Read more HERE
Pearson on facing Sunderland
And here’s what Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson has had to say about facing Sunderland:
“They’ll have been disappointed not to hold on for a win but I though that overall Coventry certainly from the second half deserved to get something out of the game.
“What bearing that has on our game I don’t know, I’m really thinking about how we get our players to get the performance right. “Teams that get promoted from League One have the added buoyancy and confidence, so I would expect it to be a tough game.
“Alex has had some success as well in terms of promotions and setting up sides that are difficult to play against. I don’t expect an easy game, put it that way.”
Neil on Bristol City
Here’s what the Sunderland boss had to say about today’s opponents:
“I think they will be well organised.
“Certainly based on last year I thought in transition they were very dangerous.
“I think 42% of their goals came from transition, so that shows you the threat they will carry
“I think they have a good blend now where they have brought some younger players through playing regular football, as well as some experienced lads in and about them.
“They will be very competitive and it will be tough. It will be their first home game so naturally every team wants to get off to a good start.”
