Score Predictions: Can Sunderland Do The Derby Double?
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Martin Wanless predicts…
Score prediction: Soul-Selling Scum 0, Glorious Righteous Red and Whites 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Chris Rigg
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Look, it’s going to be a massive challenge, particularly with Sunderland having pretty much a whole team out injured.
But, we’ve seen several times in the past year that we can pull magic results out of the bag, and if you were going to write the script, this would be it. Haway the f’kin Lads!
‘The Champion’ Malc Dugdale predicts…
Score prediction: Sad F*ckin Barcode Skunk Muppets 0 Sunderland 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Omar Alderete
Cometh the hour, cometh the eleven men (and substitutes).
This is no time for half-arsed attitudes and ‘not getting off the bus’-type performances, and we have to hope the lads fully get that. They seemed to get what this means at home and at Leeds too — but this means so much more than Leeds away.
Any kind of showing like Burnley away early in the season simply won’t do.
If we get beat fairly and squarely and the red and white wizards give their all and fall slightly short, that’s fine. This is our first derby for what feels like aeons, and we’re facing the ‘richest club in the world’ after eight years out of this division.
Splitting the Premier League points total in half this season wouldn’t be a bad outcome for us — way better than it is for them — with their deluded entitlement for more embarrassing European football still being something they’ll no doubt expect rather than hope for.
My brain says a draw or a narrow loss, but my heart wants a win.
With Alderete as good as Dan Ballard in the air and certain to play, I’m backing him to get one from a set piece, which is something we very much need after a poor return from such opportunities.
Do a ‘Nick Woltemade’ the right way, Omar, and let’s get home with another win against this lot.
Haway the f*cking laaadddssss!!
Jack Howe-Gingell predicts…
Score prediction: Saudi B Team 0 Sunderland 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Granit Xhaka
Everyone keeps telling me how we’re going to struggle in this one, and I just don’t see it. Yes, we’re going through a tough spell, and they’re doing better than previously, but derbies never work like that.
I was at St James’ Park when we lost 5-1 — one of the worst days following Sunderland in all my years. They’d just been promoted and we had a great squad, yet we were nowhere near the level required and were soundly punished.
What you’ll always get with our current crop of lads is high effort. Even in recent weeks, we’ve kept working and even if we’re running out of steam, we’ll go again in the next one.
The leaders we have know the importance of this fixture to our supporters, and most of those new to the club have experienced what it’s like to win one, so hopefully they’ll be able to envisage what it’s like to win one away.
There’s hushed talk of some key players being available for this one, and we could definitely use a little injection to get us going, but we’ll be fired up — that’s guaranteed
Always remember that they keep telling us we’ve done nothing, despite performing admirably week after week in one of the toughest leagues in the world. The pressure is all on them in front of their blood-soaked overlords, and I just have this feeling that they’ll leave disappointed.
Will Jones predicts…
Score prediction: FTM 1 Sunderland 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Habib Diarra
Derby day, midday, and form usually goes out the window, but shipping seven goals in midweek won’t have helped their mood — but whether it makes them angry or nervous is the big question.
They’ll still start quickly, backed by the crowd, so we need to be solid early and not give them anything cheap. If we get through that spell, it evens out, and there’ll be chances in this for us.
Diarra’s been poor lately, and I feel a redemption is due. In all honesty, I don’t care who scores — I just want us to win (despite the above scoreline).
Tight, scrappy and probably not great for the nerves…but I can see us getting a point.
Haway the Lads!
Matty Foster predicts…
Score prediction: FTM 1 Sunderland 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Brian Brobbey
Stats and form going into a game of this magnitude are irrelevant.
What matters is who wants it more. Who has the bottle, the grit, the desire to go out and claim the bragging rights? Both sides have injuries to key players, and it’ll be hoped that whichever side enters that white-hot atmosphere can cope with the pressure.
There’s still a lot of arrogance from the dark side going into today, something you’d think they’d have learned by now is unwise.
A draw would be brilliant given our injury list, but a win would be even sweeter than the one in December.
Show no mercy, lads, for you shall receive none!
Anthony Gair predicts…
Score prediction: Visitors 0 Sunderland 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: N/A
I think this is going to be a very cagey affair.
We’re not very good at times, and they’re not very good all the time. They have significant pace which could cause us issues, but nobody who can put the ball in the net.
They’ll be reeling from their defeat against Barcelona, however, and we’ll have to be careful that we don’t let them come out with more intensity than us. That’s the risk, really.
I’m hoping for a drab 0-0 or 0-1 come full time, and I can go to work the next day without having to cry into my keyboard.
Gary Winter predicts…
Score prediction: FTM 0 Sunderland 0
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: N/A
As the injury list piles up with names that literally form the heart and spine of our starting eleven, I’m genuinely concerned about the outcome of this match. I really hope it’s just a case of us being overly cautious and not risking certain players with a game of this magnitude in mind.
In addition, we’ve not been playing well at all, and the intense press and desire to fight for every ball that was the very foundation of our early-season success has evaded us.
To have any chance today, we have to at least rekindle our relentless desire to disrupt play. I’ll admit that my hopes went up a notch after the Barcelona drubbing in midweek, but we aren’t near that level to expose their defensive weaknesses with such ease. If only we’d landed Fermin Lopez last summer!
The first derby fixture earlier this season had all the intensity from us — something we’ve not really seen much of this calendar year — but on the whole, it looked like neither side would score all night if not for the freak own goal. So I feel like the best we can hope for is something like that again, as it’s difficult to see us scoring.
We simply must recognise the occasion once more, stand tall in a hostile environment, show commitment and bravery in abundance, and we can leave with a result today.
Brett Lyons-Davis predicts…
Score prediction: FTM 0 Sunderland 1
Sunderland’s first goalscorer: Granit Xhaka
F*ck Ant, F*ck Dec, Sting, Alan Shearer, Dan Burn, Kevin Keegan, and F*ck the Sugar Puff monster.
F*ck Sam Fender, Cheryl Cole, Bruno Guimaraes, Gazza, Jimmy f*cking Five Bellies, and Peter Beardsley.
F*ck Jimmy Nail, Tim Healy, Eddie Howe, Amanda Staveley, Joelinton and Steve Bruce.
F*ck the whole toon. F*ck the Geordie nation.
F*CK THE MAGS!
Last time out…
We narrowly lost to Brighton in an affair that could’ve gone either way but in which we fell a tad short — in part due to personnel issues getting even worse.
Chris Rigg’s goal was offside, and the visitors’ goal was one of the weirdest we’ll see all season, with a player down in the box being ignored, and the near post shot something that our goalkeeper definitely should’ve done better with.
We’ll hopefully have a few lads back from injury to shore up the red and white wall, and we can turn our away form into the weapon our home form once was — starting in today’s early kick off away at the Mags.
Last game predictions…
Most of the lads went for a win or draw, and it really could’ve gone either way. No goals for us though, so no points for FGS, and only Will (who lost points for a late submission last time out) got anything after the Seagulls headed south.
Today, we’ll see who can claim the bragging rights of being the best team in the North East and while it may end up being a tense and close affair, the possible shame at work on Monday will be the thing to be avoided by all fans, for sure.
Thank God I’m an exile living in the Midlands, because if we get a sound beating, Monday could be very challenging!
Predictions table and standings
Malc and Will share top spot after Jonesy’s miserable but accurate prediction of the Brighton loss gets him some of the points back he lost of late.
No change other than that, though all eyes will be on this game, and for at least one day, this league and the Premier League table itself will not matter one iota.
How the points are awarded
Just a quick reminder of how we allocate points to our match-by-match predictions:
- Correct score = Three points
- Correct outcome (but not correct score) = One point
- Correct first Sunderland goalscorer = One point (no goalscorer is a valid call)
- Possible deductions for being lazy and not submitting on time = a two-point deduction.