Ipswich Town 1 Sunderland 1 - Story of the day as Nathan Broadhead earns Cats a point after Leon Dajaku injury blow

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The Black Cats were second best in the first half and fell behind on the stroke of half-time following James Norwood’s headed opener.

Nathan Broadhead drew Sunderland level five minutes after the interval, though, when he produced a neat finish following Dan Neil’s fine pass.

The Black Cats remain third in the League One table behind Rotherham and Wigan.

Here’s how the game played out.

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RECAP: Ipswich 1 (Norwood, 45) Sunderland 1 (Broadhead, 50)

Key Events

Sunderland XI: Hoffmann, Wright, Flanagan, Doyle, Gooch, Winchester, Neil, Dajaku (Hume, 41), Pritchard (Embleton, 63), Broadhead (O’Brien, 87), Stewart
Subs: Patterson, Alves, Younger, Hume, Embleton, O’Brien, Kimpioka
Ipswich XI: Walton, Donanicien, Edmundson, Woolfenden, Penny (Vincent-Young, 63), Burns, Morsy, Evans, Aluko, Bonne, Norwood (Chaplin, 69)
Subs: Hladky, Burgess, Carroll, Vincent-Young, Fraser, Chaplin, Pigott

Fri, 17 Dec, 2021, 17:11 BST

Predicted line-ups

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

Predicted Sunderland line-up: Hoffmann; Wright, Flanagan, Doyle; Winchester, Neil, Embleton, Dajaku; Pritchard, Broadhead; Stewart

Predicted Ipswich line-up: Walton; Donanician, Edmondson, Burgess, Vincent-Young; Edwards, Morsy, Evans, Chaplin; Bonne, Pigott

Fri, 17 Dec, 2021, 17:04 BST

Over 28,500 are set to attend today’s match at Portman Road after Ipswich ran a ticket offer for the festive period.

Interim boss McGreal said: “They’ve got to embrace it. It’s a big crowd and a big game with the new manager watching on. There’s going to be expectancy levels from the new gaffer and the crowd.

“The expectancy is there but they’ll be right behind you. When the fans see hard work and applying yourselves well on the pitch, they will applaud you and they’ll be with you.

“The position that we’re at in the league and the inconsistency of the season; we’re still getting nearly 30,000 for a home game just before Christmas. I commend the fans all day long because they stick with you.”

Fri, 17 Dec, 2021, 17:02 BST

Johnson on Ipswich

Here’s what the SAFC boss had to say about today’s opponents:

“I think they have really good players.

“You saw their really good sort of form six or seven games ago and I think they will recapture that, especially with that new manager bounce.

“I think as Sunderland we have to deal with that as teams often raise their game against use.

“We can also use that because when teams are trying to raise their game in front of a crowd they can also make mistakes.”

Fri, 17 Dec, 2021, 17:00 BST

All change at Ipswich

Ipswich have announced the appointment of former Manchester United coach Kieran McKenna as their new boss.

McKenna will watch from the stands today as interim boss John McGreal takes charge.

Town sacked Paul Cook earlier this month and are 12th in the table, nine points off a play-off place.

Ahead of the match we caught up with Liam Young from the Kings of Anglia Podcast to get the inside track on The Blues:

He said: “McGreal has played a 4-4-2 and in some ways that has made the team worse and more inflexible. It will likely be different to Cook but for Town it is about trying to get through games and sneak results until the new man stamps his image on the club.”

Team news

Let’s start with the Sunderland team news.

Lynden Gooch was forced off with a groin injury at half-time against Plymouth last weekend and will be assessed for today’s match.

Dennis Cirkin (hernia injury), Denver Hume (ankle) and Corry Evans (thigh) have all returned to training but are unlikely to be risked from the start following setbacks.

Luke O’Nien and Aiden McGeady remain sidelined.