Sunderland 1 Portsmouth 0: Story of the day as Elliot Embleton goal gives Cats much-needed win in League One
and live on Freeview channel 276
Elliot Embleton scored the only goal of the game five minutes before half-time when he was set up by Ross Stewart.
After a shaky start, the Black Cats were more assured after the break to claim a much-needed three points.
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Hide AdNew signing Danny Batth also made his debut in the heart of the Black Cats’ defence.
Here’s how the game played out:
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RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Embleton, 40) Portsmouth 0
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Hoffmann, Flanagan, Batth, Doyle, Gooch, Cirkin, Evans, Neil, Embleton (Winchester, 83), Dajaku (O’Brien, 88), Stewart
- Subs: Patterson, Xhemajli, Winchester, Diamond, T.Hume, O’Brien, Kimpioka
- Portsmouth XI: Bazunu, Carter, Raggett, Robertson (Jacobs, 78), Romeo, Thompson (Williams, 71), Morrell, Hackett, Harness, Curtis (Hurst, 71) , Walker
- Subs: Steward, Freeman, Brown, Ogilvie, Williams, Jacobs, Hirst
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match.
Predicted Sunderland XI: Hoffmann; Winchester, Batth, Doyle, Cirkin; Evans, Neil; Gooch, Pritchard, Embleton; Stewart
Predicted Portsmouth XI: Bazunu; Carter, Raggett, Ogilvie; Romeo, Morrell, Williams, Hackett; Harness; Hurst, Walker.
Here’s what Pompey boss Danny Cowley had to say about Sunderland.
“Sunderland are a team with a lot to respect, they have a fantastic squad and they are a juggernaut of a football club at this level.
“They have a fantastic squad with huge resources and they are geared up to be promoted into the Championship and we will have to be at our very best, both with and without the ball in order to get the result that we want.
“It provides a great challenge, a great test for us. I have watched them a few times this season, and naturally we have done a lot of work since Tuesday to see how they are playing at this moment.
“They have added Danny Batth from Stoke this week, which gives them more experience defensively.
“We have worked with Alex Pritchard. Huddersfield paid £11million for him and you don’t do that unless a player is good. He is very good at creating and in Ross Stewart they have a very good forward who drifts off defenders and scores all different types of goals, so they carry a real goal threat and there is a lot to respect about them.
“It is a real test of where we are at and we are looking to find the best version of ourselves for Saturday.”
Johnson on Sunderland’s last meeting with Portsmouth
Here’s what Johnson had to say about today’s opponents, referring to October’s 4-0 defeat at Fratton Park.
“Obviously the last game was a very interesting one and we were out-fought and out-thought.
“It was difficult for us and a difficult moment we had to bounce back from and we did .
“I think this is a good test to see how far we’ve come from that day. There were lessons to be learnt on that day that we then took forward, from the back so that we didn’t leave ourselves as exposed both on and off the ball.
“In one sense it was a good thing for us, although we lost three points.
“I wouldn’t say we want revenge but we are keen to prove that we are a better team than when we played against them last time.”
How Portsmouth are shaping up
Portsmouth’s results have been mixed since they beat Sunderland 4-0 in October.
Danny Cowley’s side are ninth in the table and five points off a play-off place ahead of today’s match.
Clark Robertson (hip), Ryan Tunnicliffe (hamstring), and Louis Thompson (abdominal) are all back in contention for Pompey, while winger Reeco Hackett is being assessed with a foot issue.
To find out more, we caught up with Pompey writer Jordan Cross from our sister title The News to get the inside track:
Here’s what he said when asked about the team’s key men: “Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu has been outstanding, a Republic of Ireland international on loan from Manchester City.
“Sean Raggett has been impressive consistently at centre-half, the sort of head it, kick it type, and Connor Ogilvie has surprised a few by playing on the left of a defensive trio.
“At the other end of the pitch Pompey haven’t quite hit their straps.
“The man to watch out for, though, would be Marcus Harness who is having his best season at Pompey and is on ten goals this season – he went on a run of eight goals in 12 games.”
Read more HERE
Team news
We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Captain Corry Evans could return for the Black Cats after missing two matches with a head injury he suffered at Wycombe.
Carl Winchester is also available again after serving his one-match suspension for his red card against Lincoln.
Bailey Wright and Alex Pritchard have picked out knocks but could still feature.
New signings Patrick Roberts and Danny Batth are both available.
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our SAFC live blog for today’s match against Portsmouth.
After three games without a win, it’s been a positive week for the Black Cats following the permanent signings of Danny Batth and Patrick Roberts.
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.