Sunderland 1 Blackburn 5: Highlights after Sammie Szmodics goals in big win for visitors
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Sunderland were thumped 5-1 by Blackburn at the Stadium of Light in the Championship.
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Hide AdMike Dodds’ side fell two goals down in the first half after a brace from Sammie Szmodics. The visitors then quickly put the game beyond doubt as Ryan Hedges and Tyhys Dolen got on the scoresheet within nine minutes of the restart.
Chris Rigg did pull a goal back for the hosts, before Blackburn substitute Andrew Moran made it 5-1 nine minutes from time. Here’s how the game played out:
Sunderland vs Blackburn
LIVE: Sunderland 1 (Rigg, 77) Blackburn 5 (Szmodics, 29, 36) (Hedges, 47) (Dolan, 54) (Moran, 81)
Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, O’Nien, Ballard, Styles, Neil, Ekwah, Roberts (Clarke, 55), Aouchiche (Dack, 55), Mundle (Rigg, 55), Bellingham
Subs: Bishop, Hjelde, Pembele, Ba, Clarke, Rigg, Dack, Hemir, Burstow
Blackburn XI: Pears, Brittain, Hyam. S. Wharton, Pickering (Chrisene, 19) , Tronstad, Rankin-Costello (Carter, 74), Hedges (Markanday, 74), Szmodics, Gallagher (Moran, 67), Dolan
Subs: Wahlstedt, Carter, Buckley, McFadzean, Moran, Buckley, Markanday, Telovic, Chrisene
It's Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland's Championship match against Blackburn at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats will be looking to record a second successive victory after beating Cardiff on Friday, with Adil Aouchiche and Jobe Bellingham getting the goals.
We'll have all the build-up ahead of today's match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.
We'll start with the Sunderland team news.
Top scorer Jack Clarke (below) remains sidelined with an ankle injury but is expected to return before the end of the season. Forward Nazariy Rusyn is also unavailable with a calf issue, after missing the goalless draw against QPR last time out.
Patrick Roberts returned to the bench against Cardiff on Friday, along with Aji Alese. Club captain Corry Evans wasn't named in the squad at Cardiff but has returned to training following an ACL injury.
Jenson Seelt (knee), Niall Huggins (knee), Dennis Cirkin (hamstring) remain sidelined.
Dodds looking for back-to-back wins
Here's what Dodds said after Sunderland's win over Cardiff on Friday.
"There were two messages to the group. It’s not been an easy period for myself or anyone because of the results," Dodds said. "But what they have given me is they’ve completely bought into the processes and every single day they’ve turned up and bought into what we’re trying to do, and I thank them for that and have reiterated how important that is going forward.
"The second bit was being a little bit tough with them in terms of making sure we get a positive result on Monday because the reality is come Monday night if the result isn’t positive, everyone has forgotten about this."
How Blackburn are shaping up
Blackburn haven't won in their last nine league games and are just three points above the relegation zone heading into today's match.
John Eustace's side were beaten 1-0 by Ipswich on Friday and have struggled for goals in recent weeks.
Sammie Szmodics is the side's top scorer with 21 goals in the league this season, with Rovers very reliant on the 28-year-old.
Eustace on Sunderland match
Here's what Rovers boss Eustace said when asked about Sunderland and today's match:
"It's a fantastic football club, 45,000 fans cheering the football team on.
"It will be a difficult game but every game we have played is a difficult match. They have fantastic fans, good support.
"It's a real good arena to play our football. A challenge we're looking forward to. We are doing the right things and we're looking to get three points.
"We will be ready, prepared and we'll see where it takes us."
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today's match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, O'Nien, Ballard, Hjelde, Neil, Ekwah, Mundle, Aouchiche, Ba, Bellingham
Predicted Blackburn XI: Pears, Brittain, Hyam, Wharton, Pickering, Tronstad, Rankin-Costello, Hedges, Szmodics, Dolan, Gallagher
Dodds in his pre-match programme notes
“Over the last few weeks, Bradley Dack, Corry Evans, Aji Alese and Patrick Roberts have been putting in the work at the Academy of Light to return to full fitness.”
“They’ve had valuable minutes in the under-21s and it’s great to have them back - I’m especially delighted for Corry. It’s been a tough 13 or so months for him and he’s worked extremely hard to get back to full fitness.”
What to make of those sides
So it's two changes for Sunderland following Friday's match at Cardiff.
Patrick Roberts and Romaine Mundle return to the starting XI as Chris Rigg and Abdoullah Ba drop to the bench Jack Clarke is also back on the bench as Aji Alese drops out of the squad.
Blackburn have made one change following their 1-0 defeat against Ipswich on Friday, with Sam Gallagher replacing Ben Chrisene.
2' How Sunderland have started
As expected, Sunderland have started with Bellingham up front, with Aouchiche just behind him.
Roberts is on the right and Ba is on the left.
3' Aouchiche header saved
Sunderland register the first effort on target after Styles' cross from the left is headed towards goal by Aouchiche.
The effort was straight at Pears in the Blackburn goal.
6' More good play from Sunderland
Another shot on target for the hosts.
Aouchiche fed the ball to Mundle on the left, who then cut the ball back for Ekwah on the edge of Blackburn's box.
The midfielder's effort was straight at Pears.
10' Sunderland mounting pressure
It's been a decent start for the hosts, who are starting to rack up their corner count.
Neil clipped the ball into the Blackburn box after a short free-kick, with Ballard meeting the cross to head the ball back across goal. Blackburn were able to turn the ball behind to concede a corner.
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