Sunderland vs Wigan preview: Referee, team news, recent form and opposition view
Wigan make the journey to the Stadium of Light to take on a Sunderland team who are currently struggling to find form. Tony Mowbray’s side haven’t tasted victory since beating Reading away on Wednesday 14th of September - are three points on the cards?
Last time out the Black Cats lost 2-1 away at Swansea, while the Lactics come into the game full of confidence after beating Blackburn rovers 1-0 on Tuesday night, which secured their first home win and lifted them from 17th place to 9th in the Championship table.
Sunderland’s head-to-head record against their opponents bodes well for the home side with the lads recording the double over them in League One, as well as knocking them out of the League Cup.
However, both won promotion to the Championship via different routes; Wigan gaining automatic promotion, while the Black Cats beat Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final 2-0.
Mowbray is still without a recognised striker with Ross Stewart out for six weeks with a thigh issue, although he is positive that Ellis Simms isn’t far away from returning from a toe injury he suffered against Reading.
“Things have changed a bit because Ellis is getting his boots on and getting back out on the grass today. It’s his first day back on the grass."
“If he comes through the next few days, you never know, hopefully he won’t be that far away” Mowbray said.
Corry Evans misses the game for Sunderland through suspension, while Jack Clarke and Luke O’Nien are also one yellow card away from serving a one match suspension.
The Latics teams contains five ex-Sunderland players who will no doubt hope their return to the Stadium of Light is a positive one.
Last Meeting:
The previous meeting between the two sides was in February when both teams were pushing for promotion. It was Sunderland who were victorious that day and left the DW Stadium with three points after a convincing 3-0 win, with goals from Bailey Wright and a Ross Stewart brace.
Sunderland team: Patterson, Wright, Xhemajli, Cirkin, Evans, Winchester, Pritchard, Gooch, Embleton, Matete, Stewart
Recent Form
Sunderland: WDDDL
Wigan: LWLLW
Sunderland vs Wigan head-to-head (last 10 matches)
Sunderland wins: 7
Draws: 0
Wigan wins: 3
Referee: Keith Stroud
Keith Stroud will take charge of this match and has refereed 32 games over the last 12 months, issuing 138 yellow cards.
Stroud took charge of the Black Cats match against Bristol City earlier in the season, as Sunderland brought the three points back to the Northeast with a 3-2 win.
He will be assisted by Ian Cooper and Sam Lewis with Scott Oldham acting as the fourth official.
Opposition view:
Leam Richardson felt his side deserved victory in midweek, which gave his side momentum before heading to Wearside this weekend to face another tough game against Sunderland.
Richardson said: “We’re here in the Championship trying to compete as best as we can with a group who want to learn and are relishing the challenge.
“We are trying to make them take small steps forward every day, and the hardest challenge for us at the minute is the number of games that we’ve got coming every 72 hours.
“It’s important that we don’t get attached to results. We are on a journey in a 46-league-game campaign, and it’s important we stay on that.
“We’ve got to be really supportive of each other and make sure that nights like that, we enjoy. We learned from Saturday, and came back stronger” Richardson said.