Preview: Can Sunderland defeat PNE to start 2024 on the highest possible note?

While the performance at Rotherham may not have been enthralling, it enabled us to pick up a decent point. Will we make it an excellent start to the new year with a victory over Preston? Here’s everything you need to know.

Monday 1st January 2024

(7th) Sunderland versus Preston North End (11th)

Championship

Stadium of Light

Kick-Off: 12:30pm

The build-up…

Even though things aren’t going well at Sunderland right now, we’re actually enjoying a decent run of play. We’ve finished sixth in the championship form guide over the last six games, and even though Beale’s performances haven’t been great yet, another three points today would help stabilize things before our matchup with the Mags on Saturday.

We haven’t changed much in the three games we’ve played in the last seven days, but I believe there might be some pack shuffle today. Hopefully, the final 30 minutes at Rotherham demonstrated that Michael Beale has seen what has been obvious to fans for the majority of the season: that we are being held back by a lack of width and a striker.

Despite being ranked eleventh, Preston, today’s opponents, are having trouble. They had only won four of the previous seventeen games under Ryan Lowe. The manager received the “dreaded vote of confidence” and erupted at the local media. Hopefully, we’re playing them at the perfect time, but it’s not a pleasant camp.

Preston arrived at the Stadium of Light the previous season with no plans to play football; they closed up business, squandered time right away, and we were unable to penetrate them. I anticipate that the visiting team will take a similar tack today, thus it’s imperative to play with broader players, especially fullbacks, and a striker.

Head to head… at home to Preston

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 32
• Draws: 17
• Preston wins: 6
• Sunderland goals: 101
• Preston goals: 52

• Last time we met… at the Stadium of Light

  Saturday 1st October 2021

  Championship

  Sunderland 0-0 Preston

  Sunderland: Patterson, Gooch, O’Nien, Batth, Alese, Evans (Ba), Neil, Roberts, Embleton (Amad), Clarke (Dajaku), Pritchard (Bennette) Substitutes not used: Bass, Wright, Matete

  PNE: Woodman, Browne, Fernandez, Storey, Lindsay, Cunningham, Brady (McCann), Whiteman, Evans (Parrott), Ledson (Woodburn), Jakobsen Substitutes not used: Cornell, Diaby, Potts, Johnson

  Attendance: 41,825

• Played for both…

  David Healy

• David Healy, a striker from Northern Ireland, began his career at Manchester United, but it was in Preston that he made waves. He played 137 games and scored 44 goals there before going on the road and playing for eight other clubs, including Sunderland.

  Healy joined Roy Keane from Fulham, and during his three years at the Stadium of Light, he made just three starts, played in eighteen substitute appearances, and scored three goals. Healy played on loan at Ipswich and Doncaster before joining Glasgow Rangers on a permanent basis before retiring from Bury in 2013.

  Healy has been the manager of Linfield since 2015, during which time he has overseen over 400 games with a 63.17% win percentage.