Sunderland 1 Huddersfield 1: Highlights as Josh Koroma goal earns visitors draw after Joe Gelhardt opener
and live on Freeview channel 276
The Black Cats took a first-half lead when Joe Gelhart received Amad’s pass before converting with a low effort past goalkeeper Tomas Vacilk.
Sunderland had chances to double their lead before the break but were pegged back just before the hour mark, with Josh Koroma’s deflected effort beating Anthony Patterson.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 1 (Gelhardt, 35) Huddersfield 1 (Koroma, 59)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Gooch, Neil, Pritchard, Roberts (Watson, 88), Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt (Lihadji, 73)
- Subs: Bass, Anderson, Ekwah, Watson, Lihadji, Ba, Taylor
- Huddersfield XI: Vaclik, Pearson, Lees, Helik, Ruffels, Diarra, Kasumu, Rudoni; Koroma, Ward, Headley.
- Subs: Bilokapic, Edmonds-Green, Jackson, Lowton, Hungbo, Rhodes, Waghorn
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship match against Huddersfield Town.
The Black Cats will move into the top six with a win tonight, with teams around them playing a day later, yet Tony Mowbray’s side have just four games remaining as they try to make a late play-off push.
We’ll have live updates, analysis and more from the Stadium of Light throughout the evening.
Sunderland will still be without several first-team players for tonight’s match, with Mowbray revealing in Monday’s press conference the Black Cats have been hit with a further injury blow.
“We’ve picked up another injury from the weekend, but I don’t really want to say who it is at this stage,” said Mowbray.
Defender Dennis Cirkin will serve a one-match suspension following his red card against Birmingham on Saturday.
Luke O’Nien did return to the squad and came off the bench at the weekend after missing the trip to Cardiff - with his partner due to give birth.
Dan Ballard is still unavailable as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury, while long-term absentees Ross Stewart, Aji Alese, Corry Evans, Elliot Embleton and Jewison Bennette remain sidelined.
How Huddersfield are shaping up
Huddersfield have taken 11 points from their last six league games to climb outside the relegation zone by a point ahead of their trip to Wearside.
Yet despite an upturn in form under Neil Warnock, who took charge at The John Smith’s Stadium in February, The Terriers were beaten 1-0 at Swansea last time out.
Warnock confirmed ‘one or two’ of his players didn’t take part in Huddersfield’s full training session on Monday morning following the long trip to Swansea.
Forward Kian Harratt missed the match in South Wales due to illness after scoring in the side’s 3-2 win at Watford earlier this month.
Mowbray on Huddersfield and Warnock’s tactics
Here’s what Mowbray had to say when asked about how Huddersfield will set up under Warnock.
“I’ve been watching their last four or five games there. I think their average percentage possession of the ball has been low 20s, 23%.
“They are not really interested in possession of the ball but they make life really difficult for you, they break away and their turn of transition is very good.
“When they win it they break up the pitch in big numbers, they are good on set-plays. They are dangerous.
“I would anticipate in the game we will have quite a bit of the ball, but Neil’s team are happy for you to do that.
“We have to make sure we’re not lazy when we lose it. We have to track their runners because they will mark you man for man all over the pitch, and then when you lose the ball they come back at you very quickly, and if you don’t track them you are in trouble because they break quickly.
“The challenge for us with the players we’ve got is to try to break them down, push them back and get it into their box.”
Warnock on Sunderland
And here’s what Warnock had to say about Sunderland ahead of his side’s trip to Wearside:
“Sunderland will expect to beat us and they have a fabulous crowd up there too. I think Tony Mowbray has done a fabulous job too.
“It’s so tight at the top end that anyone has a chance of the play-offs but we’ve got to try and come away with something for ourselves.”
“I watched them at Burnley and I felt they could have got something out of that.
On playing at the Stadium of Light, Warnock added: “It’s a special place. I like the North East, I like all the clubs. Sunderland and Newcastle, what can you say about their fans? They turn out in their thousands home and away.
“But I’ve been very pleased with our fans as well. It’s been a hard season but nobody’s turned on anybody. I think they can see everyone has put a shift in.”
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for tonight’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Gooch, Neil, Ekwah, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt
Predicted Huddersfield XI: Vaclik, Pearson, Lees, Helik, Ruffels, Hogg, Edmonds-Green, Rudoni, Koroma, Ward, Headley
Mowbray in his pre-match programme notes
“Against Birmingham, we had moments of magic. It was a brilliant goal from Amad and we’ve seen that before where he scored a similar goal against them in the reverse fixture.
“Going 1-0 down is always a long way back when your home record hasn’t been great but there was a confidence about the team that we could get back into the game. Birmingham were pretty athletic and they gave us some problems at times but we managed to find a way to win which of course, was important.
“It was three huge points for us, and everyone has been looking forward to this game tonight from the moment the final whistle blew. It is another game where we need to be really positive and see if we can go and get three points.
“After back-to-back wins, we just need to keep going. There are four games to go and we are looking forward to seeing where they will take us.
“Everyone at the club hopes that you are feeling a connection with the players, and they can reward you for your amazing support in these remaining fixtures.”