Sunderland 0 Preston 0: Highlights as Tony Mowbray's side are held to goalless draw at Stadium of Light
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The Black Cats dominated possession for large spells and played some neat football between both boxes, yet they couldn’t find a breakthrough.
New signings Amad Diallo, Jewison Bennette and Abdoullah Ba were all brought on in the second half.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 0 Preston 0
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, O’Nien, Batth, Alese, Gooch, Evans (Ba, 60) , Neil, Clarke (Dajaku, 81), Roberts, Embleton (Amad, 60), Pritchard (Bennette, 70)
- Subs: Bass, Wright, Ba, Matete, Dajaku, Bennette, Amad
- Preston XI: Woodman, Storey, Lindsay, Cunningham, Brady (McCann, 86), Whiteman, Browne, Ledson (Woodburn, 72), Fernandez, Evans (Parrott, 68), Riis.
- Subs: Cornell, Diaby, Potts, McCann, Johnson, Woodburn, Parrott.
Some pre-match thoughts from Tony Mowbray
Tony Mowbray in his pre-match programme notes:
“The Middlesbrough game aside, when we had a real knock right before kick-off, I was pleased with the start heading into the international break.
“It was tough to lose Ross, but our number 10s have been brilliant – everyone has had to mix in and hopefully the goals can come from different places.
“I’ve found some really talented footballers here who need to be given the confidence to trust their ability and express what they’re good at.
“I had a Sunday morning in Durham last week and was inundated with Sunderland supporters, it makes you aware of how important football is to people here – it’s a special club.”
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; O’Nien, Batth, Alese; Gooch, Evans, Neil, Clarke; Roberts, Amad; Pritchard
Predicted Preston XI: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Whiteman, Browne, McCann, Brady; Parrott, Riis
Ryan Lowe on Sunderland
Preston are set to bring around 2,500 fans to the Stadium of Light today, and North End boss Ryan Lowe is looking forward to the contest.
Here’s what he said about Sunderland ahead of the match:
“They changed manager, which probably wasn’t ideal for them but then they’ve brought a solid manager and good bloke in Tony Mowbray who’s just adapted so well.
“They’ve won a few games and drawn a couple. They’ll be happy with their start coming up from League One, but we’ve got to worry about what we do and make sure we’re on it from minute one, and put in a performance that hopefully gets us a result.
“But saying that, it’s a place where everyone wants to go. Sunderland fans are immense, aren’t they?
“They get behind the team but they can also go against their team if they’re not doing as well, which is football at times, but we’re going to go there, enjoy ourselves and express ourselves.”
The inside track on Preston
To find out more about Preston, we caught up with North End writer Tom Sandells from the Lancashire Evening Post on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.
Here’s what he said when asked about the side’s start to the season:
“Mixed as you can probably guess by the record.
“They started off pretty well, the clean sheet record is incredible really, seven clean sheets in a row to start the season.
“The problem is that North End don’t score. For all the hard work they were putting in and doing so well to keep all those clean sheets, chances were being wasted at the other end.
“It wasn’t that they weren’t creating, they were creating and getting some really clear chances. The chances have sort of dried up in the last few games in terms of creating them and they were still on top for at least 40 minutes against Sheffield United but two errors cost them two goals.”
Mowbray on Preston
Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray had to say about today’s opponents:
“When you look at Preston they have had seven clean sheets, scored three and conceded four, the least goals against in the league, so it’s not going to be easy.
“They are going to come and make it really difficult, they will fight for every ball.
“If we play at our best with our wide individual talent, attackers and No 10s, hopefully Ellis might be closer by then, we will have to wait and see, we’ve got some options that can give them problems and we’ll do our very, very best to try and win the game.”
Team news
We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Striker Ellis Simms has suffered a setback in his comeback from injury and is unlikely to feature against Preston today.
The Everton loanee suffered a toe injury in the early stages of the 3-0 win over Reading and has not been able to train during the international break.
Sunderland suspect that Simms might have some ligament damage in his big toe.
Ross Stewart and Danial Ballard also remain sidelined but new signing Edouard Michut could be in the squad after some time to adjust on Wearside during the break.
Dennis Cirkin has returned to training after missing the games at Reading and Watford with a hamstring issue.
It’s Matchday!
Championship football is back!
Sunderland are set to host Preston North End at the Stadium of Light today - and we’ve got all the action covered.
We’ll have all the build-up, in-game analysis and post-match reaction throughout the day.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.