Sunderland 3 Shrewsbury Town 2: Story of the day as Nathan Broadhead's late winner gives Cats huge win after Tom Flanagan equaliser
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The Black Cats took a first-half lead after fine strikes from Elliot Embleton and Nathan Broadhead inside the opening 14 minutes.
Yet a disjointed start to the second half saw Shrewsbury draw level after goals from Josh Vela and former Cats defender Tom Flanagan.
Nathan Broadhead then scored a stoppage-time winner when he headed home Jack Clarke's cross.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 3 (Embleton, 4) (Broadhead, 14) (Broadhead, 90+2) Shrewsbury 2 (Vela, 50) (Flanagan, 58)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Winchester, Wright, Cirkin, Gooch (Roberts, 78), Matete (Neil, 86), O’Nien, Clarke, Embleton (Evans, 62), Broadhead, Stewart
- Subs: Burge, Batth, Xhemajli, Hume, Evans, Neil, Roberts
- Shrewsbury XI: Marosi, Pennington, Flanagan, Leahy, Whalley, (Bloxham, 88) Vela, Fornah, Bennett (Daniels, 37), Nurse, Bowman, Udoh
- Subs: Burgoyne, Pierre, Bloxham, Caton, Daniels, Craig, Janneh
Alex Neil in his pre-match programme notes
“Last weekend’s victory over Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium extended our unbeaten run to eight matches.
“I was pleased with the three points and at this stage of the season that’s the most important thing, but we lost the midfield battle in the first half and that’s on me.
“Although we looked really threatening, we didn’t have any control of the game and that’s unlike us, but we managed to see it through.
“We changed it at half time and credit to the players because they really attacked the second half, which culminated in Elliot Embleton coming off the bench and impacting the game.”
The state of play
Here’s what the League One table looks like heading into today’s matches.
Friday’s Fixtures
Accrington Stanley vs Burton
Charlton vs Morecambe
Cheltenham vs Gillingham
Crewe vs AFC Wimbledon
Doncaster vs Bolton
Fleetwood vs Oxford
Portsmouth vs Lincoln
Sunderland vs Shrewsbury
Wycombe vs Plymouth
Saturday’s Fixtures
Rotherham vs Ipswich
Wigan vs Cambridge
MK Dons vs Sheffield Wednesday
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match.
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson; Winchester, Batth, Wright, Cirkin; Evans, Matete; Clarke, Embleton, Broadhead; Stewart
Predicted Shrewsbury XI: Marosi; Pennington, Flanagan, Leahy; Bennett, Fornah, Vela, Nurse; Bloxham, Udoh, Bowman
Flanagan on Sunderland test
Sunderland will come up against former defender Tom Flanagan this afternoon.
The central defender joined The Shrews in January and has been speaking about his return to Wearside:
“It’s a tough place to go but it will also – and I’ve seen it happen – it will bring out the best in opposition players if they can not play like the occasion but just enjoy their time there,” he said.
“One thing I would definitely say about the fans is that there will probably be somewhere around 30,000-35,000 which is incredible really.
“I was there during some bad runs and some great runs and the support never dipped below that 30,000 mark which is incredible.
“You want to play in front of crowds like that and if you can get to a league where that is the standard every week, then you’re doing well for yourself.”
Read more HERE
What to expect from Shrewsbury
To find out more about Shrewsbury we caught up with Ollie Warner from the Salopcast Podcast to get the inside track.
Here’s what he had to say when asked about how The Shrews will approach the game:
“Shrewsbury are likely to line up in a 3-4-3 formation.
They have most success playing counter attacking football and are comfortable allowing the opposition to have the ball.
“We have actually struggled against sides like Crewe, Doncaster and Gillingham, but have taken four points off Sheffield Wednesday.
“Sunderland are likely to have the majority of possession on Friday.”
Read more HERE
Neil on Shrewsbury
Here’s what Sunderland boss Alex Neil had to say about today’s opponents:
“The one thing I do want to point out with Shrewsbury is that they’ve got the third best defensive record in the league, having conceded 40 goals from 42 games.
“So these are going to be really difficult to beat, they’re averaging a goal-per-game as well.
“They’ve got some good players, some powerful players who offer a threat in transition.
“They may well be relatively direct in the first phase so they’ll be a tough nut to crack.
“If you look at their season, very few teams have taken them to task and picked them apart; caused them all sorts of problems. I think the last time they conceded three was last August, and I think you would argue that they have strengthened since then with what they did in the January window.”
Team news
We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Playmaker Alex Pritchard could return after missing the Oxford game with a minor cal issue.
“Alex is making good progress,” said Neil in yesterday’s press conference.
Winger Leon Dajaku will miss today’s match and Monday’s fixture at Plymouth after returning to Germany due to illness.
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s League One match against Shrewsbury Town.
The Black Cats scored a dramatic late winner at Oxford last time out and have five games remaining as they aim to secure a play-off place.
We’ll have all the build-up ahead of today’s match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.