Sunderland 2 Birmingham City 1: Highlights after Amad Diallo goal and Dennis Cirkin red card
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he Black Cats fell a goal down in the 29th minute when George Hall converted a close-range chance for the visitors.
Sunderland responded, though, as Trai Hume equalised on the stroke of half-time, before Amad put his side ahead 15 minutes from the end.
The hosts were forced to hang on in the closing stages after a red card for Dennis Cirkin, but managed to claim all three points.
Here’s how the game played out:
RECAP: Sunderland 2 (Hume, 45) (Amad, 75) Birmingham 1 (Hall, 29)
Key Events
- Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, Cirkin, Gooch (O’Nien, 63), Neil, Michut (Gelhardt, 63), Roberts, Amad(Ekwah, 90+1), Clarke, Pritchard
- Subs: Bass, Anderson, Ekwah, O’Nien, Ba, Lihadji, Gelhardt
- Birmingham XI: Ruddy, Colin, Long, Roberts, Trusty, Bielik, Bacuna, Khadra (Medjri, 72), Hall (Bellingham, 42), Chong, Jutkiewicz (Hogan, 72)
- Subs: Etheridge, Dean, Chang, James, Bellingham, Hannibal, Hogan
It’s Matchday!
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland’s Championship fixture against Birmingham at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats still have an outside chance of finishing in the play-offs with five games remaining, yet it feels like they have to win today’s match.
We’ll have all the build-up ahead of the fixture, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.
Stick around and refresh the page for live updates.
We’ll start with the Sunderland team news.
Luke O’Nien is expected to be available again after missing the Cardiff match as his partner is due to give birth.
Mowbray rotated his side for the win in South Wales, and the likes of Patrick Roberts, Joe Gelhardt and Edouard Michut could be recalled to the starting XI.
Dan Ballard is unavailable with a hamstring issue, while Elliot Embleton, Corry Evans, Ross Stewart, Aji Alese and Jewison Bennette all remain out.
How Birmingham are shaping up
Birmingham are 17th in the Championship table and have conceded just once in their last four games – including two wins and two draws.
To find out more, we caught up with Charlie Haffenden from our sister title Birmingham World on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast.
Here’s what he said when asked about the side’s ky players:
“Auston Trusty is a loanee from the Premier League who has come in from Arsenal. He’s played most games this year.
“He can play at left-back, on the left of a three or at left centre-back and has been really solid.
“Recently Marc Roberts has been crucial for Birmingham, three clean sheets in the last four and a key reason behind that is a partnership between Roberts and Kevin Long.
“Defensively Birmingham have shut out quite a lot of teams of late.
“Going forward there’s not much going on. Any goals that are scored are usually from lumping it up to Lukas Jutkiewicz up top and maybe the likes of Reda Khadra or Tahith Chong on the wings picking it up, but going forward is far from inspiring.”
Mowbray on Birmingham
Here’s what Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray had to say about Birmingham ahead of today’s match:
“They’ll present a physical challenge, first and foremost.
“They’ve got Lukas Jutkiewicz playing up front who I signed for Middlesbrough many years ago, a fantastic lad, a fantastic human being, and a big physical presence. They have some young, athletic, players - (George) Hall has been playing, who is super-fast.
“I remember in the game down at Birmingham he ran past Jack Clarke like he was standing still, and I thought ‘how fast was that kid!’ They have their loan players, they have Reda Khadra who I had at Blackburn last season and he is lightning fast, powerful, and can score a goal.
“So they have some speed and some threats, which is why they are on a four-game unbeaten run and doing alright. They’ll come here and believe they have a chance of getting another positive result, so we have to try and make life difficult for them.”
Eustace on Sunderland
Former Sunderland defender Dion Sanderson and forward Troy Deeney have returned to training for Birmingham following injury setbacks, yet today’s match may come too soon for the pair.
Here’s what Blues boss John Eustace had to say about his side’s trip to the Stadium of Light:
“It’s a fantastic stadium and a fantastic place to go and play football. The lads should be really looking forward to the challenge up there.
“They’re a really good team and they’ve had a really good season up to now so we know it’s going to be a tough game.
“There’s still contracts to be given out and people we want to watch and see how they’re progressing and developing. There’s five big games for everyone involved at the football club going forward, that’s staff and players.
“No one will be letting up at all. The most important game is the next one and we want to be ready to try and get three points.”
Predicted line-ups
Here are our predicted line-ups for today’s match:
Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Hume, Batth, O’Nien, Cirkin, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt
Predicted Birmingham XI: Ruddy, Colin, Long, Roberts, Trusty, Bielik, Mejbri, Khadra, Hall, Bacuna, Jutkiewicz
Mowbray in his pre-match programme notes
“Reflecting on Easter Weekend, I was generally pleased with the team’s performances – after the disappointment of conceding a late goal against Hull City, the team bounced back with a win on the road.
“We controlled the game in the first 45 minutes and had great opportunities to go ahead, but the players stuck to the game plan and were rewarded with the goal after the break.
“I’d like to thank the 2,600 supporters who made the trip to South Wales – as always, your backing was fantastic.
“It’s important that there’s a connection between you and the players.
“We’re doing all we can to be a team that you enjoy watching and we’re finding different ways to score – we’ve put ourselves in a position to make it an exciting end to the season.”