Why defeat against Birmingham City is unthinkable for Sunderland in bid for survival

After a ten day break, Sunderland should be refreshed and absolutely fired up for one of the biggest games of the season tonight against fellow strugglers Birmingham City.
Sunderland manager Chris Coleman.Sunderland manager Chris Coleman.
Sunderland manager Chris Coleman.

With the Blues having had a tough FA Cup tie on Saturday, while Sunderland had the day off, we should have a slight advantage in terms of preparation and also with the confidence boost of going in to the game on the back of a win against Hull City last time out.

Both teams will know this is a game they can ill afford to lose, while at the same time knowing a win would be a massive step towards getting out of the drop zone and staying out.

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Sunderland haven’t usually performed well after a rare win this season, but what a game it would be to get – for the first time this campaign – back-to-back wins and finally some momentum into a campaign that has been on the whole a nightmare.

The Birmingham City game at home was a perfect example of Sunderland again letting the fans down.

It was the game after that long awaited first home win over Fulham yet we could only scrape a disappointing draw, even though Birmingham were bottom of the table then and had a man sent off in the second half.

With both teams in serious trouble, the pressure is on them both and sometimes that pressure can be greater on the home team – especially if things don’t go their way early on.

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So, the key for Sunderland is not to let City get their noses in front, be resolute defensively and the longer the game is goalless the more the home fans get disgruntled and that should play into Sunderland’s hands.

Birmingham are a point and a place below Sunderland so that shows what a shocking season their fans have also had to endure, but under new boss Steve Cotterill there has been an improvement of late and they got a good draw at Huddersfield in the FA Cup on Saturday to force a replay.

Both Chris Coleman and Cotterill won’t need reminding of the enormity of tonight’s game.

They will be desperately hoping they get their tactics spot on and that their team performs, as a defeat for either club tonight will be a massive blow to any hopes of survival.