Millwall 1 Sunderland 1: Highlights after Dennis Cirkin goal earns Cats a point at The Den

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Millwall.

The Black Cats will be hoping to build on last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Premier League side Fulham, yet they will have to do it without top scorer Ross Stewart who has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.

We’ll have all the build-up from The Den, 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.

Alex Pritchard (calf) and Dennis Cirkin (hip) have both travelled with the squad to London and could return to action in today’s fixture.

Lynden Gooch will remain unavailable for another few weeks with a hip flexor issue, while Luke O’Nien is still suspended.

Top scorer Ross Stewart will miss the remainder of the season with an Achilles injury, while captain Corry Evans is also set to miss the rest of the campaign after suffering damage to his anterior cruciate ligament.

Elliot Embleton is recovering from a long-term setback.

Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray had to say about today’s match:

“We know what’s coming. At Blackburn, I had four-and-a-half years of it and Millwall away is probably as tough of a game as you get in this league. Whatever people think about Millwall, support base is a massive help for that football team.

“Whether the stadium is full or not, the noise they make and the drive they give their team is like an extra man.

“We’ve sold our allocation out so it is going to be a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium on the day. We have to get to the levels that we know we can get to. If we do that, we can give any team in this league a tough game.

“The point I am trying to make is if we are not up for it against Millwall, we will get beat. We have to find the same intensity and adrenaline levels we showed last week at the Cottage.”

Millwall are a point ahead of Sunderland ahead of the match and do have a game in hand following a 1-0 win over Cardiff last time out.

To find out more, we caught up with Millwall reporter Alex Jones from Southwark News on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.

You can listen to the full episode here

Here’s what he said when asked about Millwall’s key players:

“The players I want to pick out are players Sunderland fans will have seen before at the Stadium of Light and just didn’t perform.

“Zian Flemming is one who when he plays at his best can carry the rest of the team on his back. He’s the top scorer with 10 goals, is creative, can pick a pass, is physical.

“Tom Bradshaw works himself to death as the only striker in the squad, he has to but he’s scoring fairly regularly now.

“He does go on these short bursts but is still doing a fantastic job. He runs, he presses and can be a real nightmare for defenders but it’s whether he gets the service.

“You also have to be wary of Millwall’s set-piece threat. Jake Cooper is 6 ft 4 and might even be taller.”

There will be a sell-out crowd for today’s match, with Sunderland also snapping up their full allocation of tickets.

“It’s brilliant,” said Lions boss Gary Rowett.

“I don’t know how many times in a league game we’ve done this in recent years. With Covid it’s been difficult to gauge, I suppose.

“Certainly for us, that’s a massive thing. We’re going to need this as many times as we can before the end of the season.

“We’re in a fantastic position, I think the team and the fans are all doing their part. Let’s see if we can help each other get a little bit closer and a little bit more competitive as we get into the, as people call it, ‘squeaky bum time’.

“It’s fabulous. I think Sunderland fans have played their part as well, but from our perspective it’s brilliant. I think the fans getting behind the team in the way that they are going to do this weekend can only be a positive.”

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

Predicted Millwall XI: Long, McNamara, Hutchinson, Cooper, Wallace, Mitchell, Saville, Honeyman, Flemming, Voglsammer, Bradshaw

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Ballard, Batth, Alese, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt

So it’s one change from the side which started at Fulham last weekend.

Joe Gelhardt comes in to make his Sunderland debut in place of the injured Ross Stewart up front.

Dennis Cirkin and Alex Pritchard are back on the bench following injury setbacks, while new signing Joe Anderson is also in the squad.

Millwall make two changes from their 1-0 win over Cardiff last time out, with injured duo Callum Styles and Shaun Hutchinson dropping out.

Charlie Cresswell and Murray Wallace are the players who come in, while new signing Duncan Watmore has been named on the bench.