Sheffield United 2 Sunderland 1: Story of the night after Lynden Gooch goal and Dan Neil red card

Here are our predicted line-ups for tonight’s match.

Predicted Sheffield United XI: Foderingham; Ahmedhodzic, Egan, Norrington-Davies; Baldock, Norwood, Berge, Fleck, Lowe, Ndiaye, Brewster

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; O’Nien, Batth, Cirkin; Gooch, Evans, Neil, Clarke; Pritchard; Simms, Stewart

Here’s what Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom had to say about Sunderland ahead of tonight’s match.

“They look to be in as good a place as they have for a while.

“They had 37,000 at their last home game, so it is a big club. They’re mad about their football and are desperate to see their team do well.

“But all that is irrelevant for us though. We just know they’re coming with an attitude of a team just promoted: ‘Nothing to lose, let’s take them on.’

“If they come with that attitude, it’ll be a real good game.”

To find out more about tonight’s opponents, we caught up with James Shield from our sister title The Sheffield Start on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast:

You can listen to the full episode here

Here’s what he said when asked about The Blades’ start to the season.

“I think it’s fair to say it’s been a solid rather than a spectacular start but probably a start that a lot of us would have expected Paul Heckingbottom’s team to have had.

“I don’t think there is any disgrace in losing to Watford. They then beat Millwall, a well organised Millwall side as is always the case under Gary Rowett.

“Then I thought Sunday’s result against Middlesbrough, obviously it’s quite an emotive fixture for Sheffield United with Chris Wilder being at the Riverside, but I thought that was a really good game and there were some positive signs.

“Coming into it off the back of a big disappointment losing in the play-offs last season, when you assess what they have done in context it has been fairly encouraging.”

Here’s what the Sunderland boss had to say about tonight’s opponents.

“This will be our biggest test to date, for me.

“Without a doubt. What they’ve got more than anything else is their experience. If you look at this team, I know last season they were in the Championship but before that they spent two years in the Premier League. You look at Sander Berge, John Fleck, Oli Norwood, that was their midfield three that finished I think eighth in the Premier League.

“Not bad, are they? It’s going to be a tough game.

“I think it’ll go to another level for us, particularly away from home. At Bramall Lane Sheffield United are really, really strong, you look at the run they went on last year.”

Sunderland will be without defender Daniel Ballard for the foreseeable future after he suffered a fractured foot during Saturday’s draw with QPR.

The Black Cats’ defensive problems have deepened further since then, with Carl Winchester also facing a spell on the sidelines with a back issue.

Sheffield United are also set to be without a few senior players for tonight’s match, including striker Billy Sharp and Newcastle loanee Ciaran Clark.

We’ll start with the latest on the transfer front.

Sunderland boss Alex Neil said a few weeks ago that he still wanted to add four or five players to his squad before the end of the window, yet no new signings have been made since then.

Neil admitted in yesterday’s press conference that the club are facing a battle to land targets who will likely be offered more money by clubs elsewhere in the Championship.

Asked if he remained confident that signings would arrive before the end of the month, and whether it was simply a case of playing a waiting game for established targets. he replied: “It’s not easy, the problem is I can’t make decisions for people.

“We’re trying to recruit the best players we can, and earlier in the window you set your stall there [high] because I don’t want to bring in players that are a 17th, 18th, 19th man. I want to bring guys in that are going to be a better second, third or fourth man.

“That comes at a premium, and that’s why it is difficult. Not only that, we’re in competition with other clubs at the same level that are arguably going to spend more money on those types of positions than we will.”

Read more HERE

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture at Sheffield United.

We’ll have all the build-up ahead of today’s 8pm kick-off, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates throughout the evening.