Championship news: Birmingham and Sunderland team news plus Middlesbrough boss reveals message

Sunderland to miss Luke O’Nien

Luke O’Nien will miss Sunderland’s clash against Birmingham City on Friday.

On O’Nien, Tony Mowbray : “He’s had five yellow cards and he’s going to miss a game. It’s an opportunity for somebody else - we’ve got Trai Hume sitting on the bench. We’ll just get on with it really.”

The loss to Cardiff City last weekend left Sunderland still on 24 points in the Championship

Birmingham team news

Birmingham City could be without Harlee Dean on Friday.

The Blues and Sunderland are set to face off in the Championship at St Andrew’s in the last game before the World Cup break. Dean, however, was left out of Birmingham’s squad for Tuesday night’s draw against Swansea City.

The 31-year-old ex-Sheffield Wednesday man has been in good form since returning to the Birmingham City starting line-up seven games ago and recently netted against Alex Neil’s Stoke City.

However, Dean missed out on the 2-2 draw against Swansea City earlier this week with a calf problem with Blues boss John Eustace confirming the situation.

Troy Deeney’s late equaliser gave Blues a 2-2 draw against Swansea. Afterwards, Birmingham City’s head coach said of Dean said: “He took a slight knock on Saturday after his magnificent performance at Stoke, he wasn’t right for today and we will have to see if he will be right for Friday.”

Middlesbrough boss reveals message

Michael Carrick was beaming as bright as the Illuminations after Middlesbrough beat Sky Bet Championship strugglers Blackpool 3-0 at Bloomfield Road.

Isaiah Jones struck in the 15th minute in an authoritative first half and made their dominance pay shortly after the break via a Marcus Forss penalty.

Chuba Akpom sealed the result with 25 minutes remaining as Boro climbed up to 16th in the table, leaving Blackpool still teetering two points above the bottom three.

Carrick believed it was the complete performance and the perfect response to the 1-1 draw with Bristol City at the weekend.

He said: “I am delighted for the players, for the amount of effort and how much we’ve improved from game to game.

“Off the back of Saturday, doing so well and not getting what we wanted from the game, to do what we have tonight…

“We had a bit of everything in the performance: goals, clean sheet, we defended well and looked dangerous and played some really good football.”