Sunderland 1 Doncaster Rovers 2 RECAP: Story of the day after Reo Griffiths and Tommy Rowe goals on Jermain Defoe's return
and live on Freeview channel 276
The Black Cats fell a goal down when Reo Griffiths opened the scoring with a low shot in the 22nd minute.
Doncaster then doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time after Sunderland failed to clear a corner and Tommy Rowe fired home a second.
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Hide AdSunderland did create better chances after the break, and brought on Jermain Defoe with just under 20 minutes to go.
Corry Evans pulled a late goal back but it was too little too late.
Here’s how the game played out:
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RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Evans, 89) Doncaster Rovers 2 (Griffiths, 22) (Rowe, 45)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Hoffmann, Winchester (Clarke, 62), Batth, Doyle, Cirkin, Evans, Neil (Matete, 73), Gooch, Embleton (Defoe, 73), Pritchard, Stewart
- Subs: Patterson, Hume, Matete, Roberts, Clarke, Dajaku, Defoe
- Doncaster XI Mitchell, Williams, Olowu, Younger, Seaman, Smith, Rowe, Jackson, Martin (Gardner, 69), Griffiths (Knoyle, 80), Odubeko (Dodoo, 74)
- Subs: Jones, Knoyle, Clayton, Barlow, Dodoo, Gardner, Agard
Predicted line-ups
Here’s how we think the two sides could line up today:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Hoffmann; Winchester, Batth, Doyle, Cirkin; Evans, Neil; Gooch, Pritchard, Clarke; Stewart
Predicted Doncaster XI: Mitchell; Knoyle, Olowu, Younger, Jackson; Galbraith, Smith, Rowe; Dodoo, Odubeko, Martin
McSheffrey on facing Sunderland
Here’s what the Doncaster match said about today’s match:
“It’ll be a packed-out stadium and a good atmosphere, and every footballer wants to play in these sort of games.
“I expect to see a performance from my team that is hard-working and grafting. They should be leaving everything out there.
“Those are the minimum, non-negotiables and if you get that and everyone is at it, you tend to get the performance levels you want.”
Rovers remain bottom of the League One table, 11 points from safety, and were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Sunderland in December.
To find out more, we caught up with Doncaster reporter Liam Hoden at our sister title the Doncaster Free Press to get the inside track.
Here’s what he said about how Rovers will line up: “Gary McSheffrey has typically switched around between 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 during his time in charge.
“Against Rotherham in midweek he went for a 3-4-1-2 in an attempt to match up with the Millers but it didn’t work.
“Long term he would like to play a back three but it’s not certain at the minute that he’s got the personnel to do it.”
Read more HERE
Dodds on Doncaster
Dodds joined Sunderland in the summer from Birmingham City to become the Black Cats’ Head of Individual Player Development.
Since Elliott Dickman left the club last year, Dodds has been taking charge of the under-23s side alongside Michael Proctor.
Dodds will be supported by Proctor, First-Team Coach Phil Jevons and Goalkeeping Coach David Preece until a permanent head coach is appointed.
Ahead of today’s match, Dodds said: “The players have been absolutely first class.
“They have ensured that a situation t
hat isn’t particularly easy to come into has been very easy and, layered on top of that, the staff have been excellent.”
He continued: “We’ve had a really good week in terms of our preparation and everything we’ve done throughout it has been to give the players the best possible platform to be successful in the game, so I hope that we’ve been able to do that.
“The players know what type of occasion this is going to be - with the biggest attendance of the season expected - but that pressure is a privilege.
“As a collective, we have to embrace that we represent such a magnificent football club and not shy away from it.”
