Shrewsbury Town 1 Sunderland 1: Story of the night as Daniel Udoh earns hosts a point following Alex Pritchard opener and David Davis red card
and live on Freeview channel 276
The Black Cats beat Ipswich 2-0 at the Stadium of Light last time out after late goals from Luke O’Nien and Aiden McGeady.
It’s a result which moved Lee Johnson’s side back into the League One play-off places after three consecutive league defeats – and they still have games in hand on the sides above them.
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Hide AdShrewsbury, managed by former Sunderland assistant Steve Cotterill, are fighting at the opposite end of the table following a 2-1 defeat at Cheltenham last time out.
The Shrews will also be without a handful of key players for tonight’s match but did beat Sunderland 2-1 at The Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium in this fixture last season.
We’ll have live updates, analysis, reaction and more throughout the evening.
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RECAP: Shrewsbury Town 1 (Udoh, 64) (Davis sent off, 45) Sunderland 1 (Pritchard, 16)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Hoffmann, Winchester, Wright, Doyle, O’Nien, Neil, Pritchard (McGeady, 74) , Gooch (Dajaku, 74), O’Brien (Evans, 62), Broadhead, Stewart
- Subs; Patterson, Flanagan, Evans, Alves, Dajaku, Embleton, McGeady
- Shrewsbury XI: Marosi, Davis, Pennington, Nurse, Ogbeta, Bloxham (Cosgrove, 84), Vela, Leahy, Pyke, Udoh, Bowman
- Subs: Burgoyne, Caton, Leshabela, Wilson, Kaninda, Craig, Cosgrove
How the hosts are shaping up
Shrewsbury, managed by former Sunderland assistant Steve Cotterill, are 21st in League One following a 2-1 defeat at Cheltenham last time out.
The Shrews will be without suspended right wing-back Elliott Bennett, who serves a one-game ban for his red card last Saturday, while Shaun Whalley has suffered a thigh tear and Josh Daniels (ankle) remains out.
We caught up with Shrewsbury reporter Lewis Cox from the Shropshire Star to get the inside track on how they have fared so far.
He said: We are closing in on December and nearing the midpoint of the season, and to find themselves inside the bottom four at this stage of the campaign was certainly not in anybody’s aspirations.
“The opening weeks and months of the season in particular were a struggle. Town found finding the net difficult and were struggling to keep clean sheets at the other end - the latter is still a problem, there has only been one shutout in all competitions this season.
“They finished the transfer window light on options in a couple of positions and found dealing with some unavailability tricky early on. Supporters were disappointed that another couple of signings did not come off.”
Read more HERE
Johnson on his full-back dilemma
Here’s what the Black Cats boss had to say after Saturday’s win over Ipswich.
“I’ve got to take each game on its merits and I have to be Uber-flexible. I had seven wingers fit today who could have played today.
“We might have to go five at the back and two up top, but that really needs three or four weeks work because the pressing is different. But, we’ve got fit centre backs and wide players who could play wing back.
“We’ll have to take it horses for courses, but there may be times when we might look a bit disjointed to get our best players on the pitch.”
Team news
Lee Johnson has a concerning dilemma at full-back after Dennis Cirkin was ruled out until January with a hernia injury.
With Niall Huggins and Denver Hume also out until the new year, Johnson may have to change his side’s formation in the coming weeks.
Luke O’Nien started at left-back against Ipswich and is likely to do so again tonight.
It’s Matchday!
The games are coming thick and fast for Sunderland as Lee Johnson’s side look to revive their promotion challenge.
Tonight the Black Cats will face Shrewsbury at The Montgomery Waters Meadow - and we’ve got all the action covered.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates, analysis, reaction and more.