A third season for Sunderland in League One seems unthinkable. If failure to win promotion last season was a failure, as the owners and then manager Jack Ross admitted would be the case, another stumble would be hard to bear.
Phil Parkinson, working with his inherited squad, has had a patchy start as Ross’s successor, three away defeats mitigated by three home wins, cup ties included. The league part of that short record – two wins, two defeats – is not the stuff of automatic promotion. Without significant improvement, we will remain playoff contenders.
So do we regard tonight’s Leasing.com Trophy (or, put in less ugly form, EFL Trophy) group stage game against Leicester Under 21s and Saturday’s FA Cup first round tie versus Gillingham, both at home, as useful opportunities for Parky to experiment with fringe players – or distractions from the serious task of getting out of this division?
As usual, Monsieur Salut wants Sunderland to win every game played. If it can be achieved without injuries or card accumulation, so much the better.
What do you think? Despite Salut! Sunderland‘s technical problems, we would see any scoreline predictions which you attempt to post here but cannot then see. Alternatively, you can always have your say at Salut! Sunderland’s Facebook group. If you are told that you need to join the group, you can do so easily. Approval is very quick.
Ha’way the Lads.
I hope you get your technical issues resolved soon. Who knows if anyone has already picked the same scores.
Towards the end of last season, we were in a better position than Barnsley, but, after cup runs, we had a huge backlog of games. Maybe this made a difference.
I would be OK, in this instance, losing both matches. Having said that, I am predicting Sunderland wins. 🙂 No clean sheet in the first match.
Sunderland 2 Leicester 1
Sunderland 2 Gillingham 0