Sunderland 1 Bristol City 1: Highlights as Nahki Wells penalty earns visitors a draw after Jack Clarke opener

Sunderland were held to a 1-1 draw against Bristol City at the Stadium of Light
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Jack Clarke opened the scoring just before the hour mark when he cut in from the right and fired a shot into the top corner.

Tony Mowbray’s side appeared to be heading towards a third consecutive victory before Trai Hume brought down substitute Jay Dasilva in the box, allowing Nahki Wells to convert from the penalty spot.

Here’s how the game played out:

RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Clarke, 59) Bristol City 1 (Wells, 90+3)

Key Events

  • Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Ballard, O’Nien, Alese, Neil, Michut (O’Nien, 62), Roberts (Ekwah, 86), Amad, Clarke (Cirkin, 86) , Gelhardt (Pritchard, 62)
  • Subs: Bass, O’Nien, Ba, Pritchard, Lihadji, Ekwah, Cirkin
  • Bristol City XI: O’Leary, Tanner, Atkinson (Kalas, 16), Vyner, Pring, James, Williams (Da Silva, 87), Mehmeti (Cornick, 70), Sykes, Bell (Wells, 70), Scott
  • Subs: Haikin, Da Silva, Kalas, King, Cornick, Wells, Weimann

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Bristol City at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats will be aiming to record their third successive victory following Tuesday’s 3-0 win at QPR, yet Nigel Pearson’s Robins have gone ten matches unbeaten in all competitions.

We’ll have all the build-up ahead of the match, as well as in-game analysis and post match reaction.

Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.

Tony Mowbray made three changes to his Sunderland side against QPR in midweek, with Dan Neil, Edouard Michut and Amad dropping out of the starting XI.

All three are expected to return to the side today, with the Black Cats managing a congested fixture schedule.

Ross Stewart, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton remain out with long-term injuries, while Niall Huggins and Lynden Gooch won’t be available against Bristol City.

Mowbray on team selection

Here’s what Mowbray said when asked about potentially making changes for today’s match:

“There might be one or two but there won’t be wholesale changes. I know I made three the other day.

“I’m just mindful that I’d like to get back to the Saturday-Saturday games and then you can manage their well-being throughout the week.

“Every three days is a bit tough because there is a few knocks and a few that don’t feel they should train because they feel tight. We are just trying to manage them through.

“On Friday, I’ll assess who can train, who is flashing amber lights for pulling up and then see if we can get the balance right. The good thing for me is that we have got some flexible footballers who can play inside or outside so we have to get the formation right.

“We have to get the selection right to give one or two a breather in this period but also to keep the performance level high as possible.”

How Bristol City are shaping up

Bristol City are 16th in the table heading into today’s fixture but haven’t lost for ten matches in all competitions following an upturn in form.

To find out more we caught up with Jordan Jones from our sister title Bristol World on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast

Here’s what he said when asked how The Robins will set up:

“Bristol City were playing with three at the back which they had been playing quite a lot under Nigel Pearson’s tenure.

“Over the last month, which has coincided with their good run of form, they have ditched the five at the back system and gone to a four at the back system.

“You would think more defenders equals more clean sheets but actually the four at the back system has actually worked a bit better.

“They have George Tanner right-back, Cameron Pring left-back and the centre-back partnership of Rob Atkinson and Zak Vyner. That is quite a youthful backline.

“What we have seen from City at times under Pearson is that sometimes they are naive and concede goals that are cheap. We’re not seeing that many mistakes from this Bristol City defence at the moment and they are becoming a bit more streetwise.”

Pearson on Bristol City’s preparation

Here’s what Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson said when his side’s upturn in form:

“I’m not a big fan of overloading players information anyway, it’s about drip feeding over a sustained period of time which is probably why we’re a bit of a slow burner in terms of how we improve.

“I would prefer that which hopefully means it has a more lasting effect. If you look at the last ten games where we’re unbeaten, we’ve done okay but actually what we’ve done over the two years, players out and bringing players in and trying to build something, I think we’re in a much better position.”

Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Ballard, Batth, Cirkin, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt

Predicted Bristol City XI: O’Leary, Tanner, Vyner, Atkinson, Pring, James, Williams, Sykes, Scott, Bell, Wells

Some interesting stats ahead of today’s match:

- Sunderland are looking to complete their first league double over Bristol City since the 1909-10 campaign, having won 3-2 earlier this season.

- This is only Bristol City’s second away league game against Sunderland this century – in their other in 2017-18, they won 2-1 under Lee Johnson.

- Sunderland are looking to win three consecutive league games within the top two tiers for the first time since a run of four in May 2014 under Gus Poyet.

- Bristol City are unbeaten in their last five away league games (W2 D3), picking up more points (9) than in their previous 10 such games (8 – W2 D2 L6).

- After winning three of his first five league games against Bristol City as a manager between 2007 and 2011 (D1 L1), Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has only won two of his last 13 league meetings with the Robins (D5 L6).

We’ve arrived at Stadium of Light

Mowbray in his pre-match programme notes

“It’s great to be back at home today following our midweek win at Queens Park Rangers.

“I was delighted with the team’s performance – we changed the system and a few players and once they got to grips with it, we caused the opposition problems and, on another night, could have scored more than three goals.

“We were all really pleased for Jack Clarke – we asked him to play more narrow than usual to exploit the space in between their centre-backs, and it was a strong performance from him.

“Anthony Patterson also made a crucial save from the penalty spot, and the way he commanded his area took pressure off the defence.

“We’ve had two midweek fixtures in a row now with a third coming next week, so it’s important we utilise the squad to keep the level of energy and intensity high.”