Another round of Sky Bet League 1 matches begins on Friday night this week as the division gets the TV treatment when promotion chasing Sunderland play host to the League 2 champions Accrington Stanley at the Stadium of Light.
This has become a big match for both sides. Sunderland have gone into an extended period of binary outcomes which has seen them fall off the pace at the top while Accrington are plummeting like a brick at the minute. Both need to end recent trends here.
Sign up to 888sport before the big FA Cup tie on Monday night to get 10/1 on Chelsea to win OR 20/1 on Man Utd to win! Click the banner above to take your enhanced odds. New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply.
Sunderland
It is now 10 matches in a row where Sunderland have failed to score more than one goal in a match so if they want to get back into the top two they don’t need to search too hard to work out what needs to change. They simply have to find the net a whole lot more which makes the decision not to pay Josh Maja what he wanted and then fork out £4m on Will Grigg all the more strange.
A lack of goals means that Sunderland have drawn five of their last six matches but they are batting first this week and have the chance to apply a little scoreboard pressure to those around them to coin a cricketing analogy. The one time they faced genuinely struggling opponents though they beat AFC Wimbledon so that could be something to consider.
Accrington Stanley
Accrington went to Luton towards the end of October flying high in this division sitting in fourth place but they took a beating that night and have been nose diving down the league table ever since then. They have won just two of 16 matches since leaving Kenilworth Road and head to the Stadium of Light with no win in six and no goal in any of those outings either. To say they are struggling would be an understatement.
There was always the potential for them to struggle this term. They punched above their weight in winning League 2 last season and were Billy Kee or Sean McConville to go a period of time without making an impact you wondered what else they would have. The answer appears to be very little. Stanley will now hope they picked up enough points in that golden start to the campaign to limp over the line in the race to avoid relegation.
Team News
Sunderland could have midfielders Lee Cattermole and Max Power back for this encounter but Duncan Watmore, Glenn Loovens, Bryan Oviedo and Donald Love are all out for the Black Cats as they look to steady their ship.
Okera Simmonds could make his debut for Accrington after joining from Blackburn Rovers and it is expected that John Coleman will shuffle the pack for this one, although how many changes he can make remains to be seen.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I think Sunderland will win this match but I’ve completely lost faith in them after failing to beat Oxford last weekend. I can take comfort from the fact that if they do win here then they will strengthen the chances of Accrington to be relegated which I took last week so I’m going to avoid the match outcome in this one.
That is because I think under 2.5 goals is the better bet. Sunderland’s last nine matches have contained two or fewer goals while Accrington haven’t scored in the league since Boxing Day. They aren’t exactly shipping goals though having only conceded three in their last four. Both teams need to win here so they could easily tighten up if and when they go ahead and protect what they have. Sunderland should dominate the match but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t play out that was on the scoreboard.
Tips
Back Under 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
