Cheltenham Town 2 Sunderland 1 RECAP: Story of the night as Elliot Bonds and Alfie May goals give hosts win after Alex Pritchard free-kick
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The Black Cats took a first-half lead when Alex Pritchard converted an excellent free-kick, yet the visitors couldn’t make their advantage count.
Second-half goals from Cheltenham’s Elliot Bonds and Alfie May turned the game on its head.
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Hide AdSunderland right-back Trai Hume made his debut for the club, while Jay Matete and Jack Clarke were handed their first starts.
Here’s how the game played out:
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RECAP: Cheltenham Town 2 (Bonds, 64) (May, 78) Sunderland 1 (Pritchard, 32)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, Doyle, Cirkin, Matete, Evans, Dajaku (Roberts, 75), Pritchard, Clarke (Defoe, 80), Stewart
- Subs: Carney, Xhemajli, Winchester, Neil, Roberts, Embleton, Defoe
- Cheltenham XI: Evans, Raglan, Pollock, Boyle, Blair, Ramsey (Sercombe, 72), Bonds, Colkett (Wright, 60), Williams (Freestone, 80), Etete, May
- Subs: Flinders, Freestone, A. Williams, Wright, Sercombe, Hutchinson, Soule
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for tonight’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Hoffmann; Hume, Batth, Doyle, Cirkin; Matete, Evans; Clarke, Pritchard, Dajaku; Stewart
Predicted Cheltenham XI: Evans; Raglan, Pollock, Boyle; Blair, Sercombe, Bonds, Wright, Williams; May, Etete
Michael Duff on facing Sunderand
Here’s what Cheltenham boss Michael Duff had to say about tonight’s match against Sunderland.
“They’ve just lost back-to-back and they’re still fourth in the League which shows you what a strong position they are in.
“We know what they’re all about. They beat us 5-0 earlier in the season. There is a little bit of upheaval in terms of losing the manager. We can’t worry too much about Sunderland. We know they’re a really good team, we know they’ve got some very good players and we know about the size of the club as well.
“The league table tells you they are a good team and their result against us earlier in the season tells you they’re a good team. The table tells its own story. We’ve got to try and implement what we do on them and be better than we were against them earlier in the season.”
The inside track on Cheltenham
Cheltenham are 17th in the League One table and were beaten 5-0 by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in September.
To find out more about the Robins, we caught up with radio commentator Mark Halliwell to get the inside track on Michael Duff’s side.
Heres what he said when asked about Cheltenham’s form since their last meeting with Sunderland:
“It’s been mixed - and they are on a run at the moment of 12 games in all competitions without a win.
“It’s been frustrating as the performances have not been that bad, but they have just not been able to close out games.
“They have led in seven of those 12 games and seen those leads slip to either defeats or draws and some supporters are starting to get worried about a slip down into the relegation scrap.”
Read more HERE
The head coach situation
It’s understood that Sunderland were planning a second round of interviews this week as they continue to look for a new head coach.
Sporting Director Kristjaan said on Saturday: “At the minute, we’re going through our process and we have to be respectful to the candidates within that process, we have to be respectful that for the fans and the club we have to make the right appointment.
“At the minute we are interviewing, fact-finding on another couple of people.”
Roy Keane remains the favourite to take charge at the Stadium of Light, with Grant McCann and Alex Neil still in the frame.
Team news
Let’s start with the team news.
Mike Dodds will once again lead an interim coaching team for tonight’s match, with the club still searching for a new head coach.
The Black Cats aren’t expected to have any fresh injury concerns, with Bailey Wright still sidelined with a calf issue.
New signings Jack Clarke, Jay Matete and Patrick Roberts could make their first starts for the club.
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s League One meeting with Cheltenham Town.
The Black Cats desperately need to get back to winning ways following Saturday’s damaging 2-1 defeat by bottom of the table Doncaster Rovers.
We’ll have all of the build-up ahead of tonight’s match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.