[themaclad]

Sunderland v Preston North End

Stadium of Light 1/1/2024

MANAGER



Michael Beale (born 4 September 1980) is an English football manager who is currently head coach of Championship club Sunderland.

Beale played football as a youth, but retired at 21 and became a coach. He worked for Chelsea, Liverpool and São Paulo. After stints working as first team coach with Steven Gerrard at Rangers and Aston Villa, Beale became manager of Queens Park Rangers in June 2022. He left QPR after five months to become manager of Rangers, but was sacked from that role in October 2023.

Possibly on a hiding to nothing replacing a popular manager and having those in the plush seats wanting to pick the team, best of luck on that although after tomorrow

LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

SUNDERLAND 10 PNE 8

IN THE GROOVE



Clarke the obvious, also rate the keeper

https://www.safc.com/

https://www.readytogo.net/smb/

https://www.not606.com/threads/sunderlan...30.410438/

BIT OF HISTORY

In 685, King Ecgfrith granted Benedict Biscop a "sunder-land". Also in 685 The Venerable Bede moved to the newly founded Jarrow monastery. He had started his monastic career at Monkwearmouth monastery and later wrote that he was "ácenned on sundorlande þæs ylcan mynstres" (born in a separate land of this same monastery). This can be taken as "sundorlande" (being Old English for "separate land") or the settlement of Sunderland.[8][9] Alternatively, it is possible that Sunderland was later named in honour of Bede's connections to the area by people familiar with this statement of his.


Who’s Available?

North End were boosted by the long-awaited return of Emil Riis on Friday night after almost a full year on the sidelines, and the Dane is expected to be part of the squad heading to the Stadium of Light.

Fellow forward Will Keane will need to be assessed ahead of Monday after struggling with illness for the last few days.

Jack Whatmough’s injury which forced him off against Sheffield Wednesday will also be checked on before the visit to Wearside, while Robbie Brady’s calf issue is expected to keep him out.

Opposition Focus


Sunderland are still settling into life under a new head coach in Michael Beale, who took over on 18th December, following the departure of Tony Mowbray.

The former Rangers boss got his first victory in charge of the Black Cats on Boxing Day, beating Hull City away from home, before picking up another point on the road against Rotherham United.

They’re in a good position in the table heading into the opening game of the year, sat a place and two points outside of the Play-Off spots.

Match Officials

Referee: Oliver Langford
Assistant Referees: George Byrne and Andrew Dallison
Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone

After taking charge of the draw against Norwich City in December, Oliver Langford will referee his second North End match of the season on New Year’s Day.

So far this campaign, Langford has shown 60 yellow cards and five reds in 17 matches.

Langford, jeez, we are cursed with naf officials after her on Friday

MACS VIEW

Well we are not starting the New Year at Stoke is one consolation, what tactics will Mr Fantastic employ tomorrow to bore the pants off everyone, even Bellingham's brother if he's there would probably wish being in Madrid then watch us
Beale had to apologise to home support after being rinsed by Coventry in his first game
The excitement watching us never ends and the sodding thing is on the box so it is a 6 am get up, the joy, look forward to the steps up to the Gods, lungs have disappeared in the usual Christmas period cold. Can't beat the misery of supporting your club through thin and thinner
HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL

[themaclad]

Sunderland 2 Pritchard Rusyn Preston North End 0

Sunderland line-up: Patterson; Hume, O’Nien, Ballard, Alese (Pembele, 70); Ekwah, Neil; Pritchard (Seelt, 85), Bellingham (Mayenda, 85), Clarke; Rusyn (Ba, 76). Subs not used: Bishop, Burstow, Aouchiche, Triantis, Rigg.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Whiteman, McCann (Keane, 66), Millar; Browne, Frøkjær; Evans (Osmajić, 66). Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Ledson, Woodburn, Holmes, Best.

Attendance: 42,714 (PNE fans TBC). Good estimate attendance, quite a few empty seats

Referee: Mr O Langford.

The last time I was on a coach this early for a New Years Day was about 1993 Bournemouth away 1-0 Efan Ekoku scored after 5 minutes. Won the scratch card on the coach £20 up lost three as you cannot take loose change into the ground, interesting take on legalised mugging that but apparently it goes to charity.

Managed the steps without difficulty this season, three changes Mads actually starting, very open first ten minutes and we hadn't started badly, Whiteman having a decent early strike well saved by Patterson, however one down in ten minutes, credit to Pritchard it's a great strike but we should have dealt better by those further up the pitch.
Millar was proving a nightmare for them however our ponderous build up play was as usual hampering us, we are great with our backs to the opposition goal.
Home side quicker on the ball always looked more likely to pot than we did, couple of efforts from Frokjaer went over the bar. In truth neither keeper was overly trouble although Woodman did drop a shot from Pritchard and did well to retrieve it.
Then on the stroke of half time came the second, if ever a goal killed a game it was this one, Clarke disppeared down the wing at a rapid rate, three yellow shirts went towards him, ball inside and Rusyn did the rest, those in the away end knew it was game over and apparently in his interview so did the manager.



The second half waas dire just appeared to be an elongaged training session, they knew they had won, sure we had a few shots but doubt whether the home side got out of first gear, great Whiteman tackle prevented a goal on a Sunderland break. A few Lowe out shouts were heard afew boos at the end. Four wins in 19, Ryan, our possession based walking football will not win us many game, now 14th and the little matter of Chelsea in the cup, at this rate we will make even them look decent


Sunderland manager Michael Beale:

"The story of the game is a number nine scores for Sunderland. He earned his goal and it has been difficult for him.

"His wife and children aren't here. That must be hard for him, with everything going on back home at this time of the year. He's been here six months and he's on to his third coach, I am delighted for him.

"The most important thing was to get a home win against a Preston team fighting with us around the same position.

"This was a game more even and we took our chances. I'm delighted with our return from four games."

Preston boss Ryan Lowe:

"We can't give that much space and let a goal go in from 25 yards out for the first one. We have to get out to the ball.

"Then the second one before half-time…we spoke about Jack Clarke all week. We had to lock that out because he was the danger. He puts the ball across the box and it is 2-0 at half-time and it is game over.

"Seven days ago we were beating Leeds - we need to find a way to get back to what we were doing at the start of the season.

"I can't criticise the players. We need to find solutions over the next two weeks, the next worry is to pick points up as quickly as we can. We know it's not good enough."