Match Preview: Hull City v Sunderland – all you need to know ahead of kick-off!

Michael Beale’s Sunderland head to Humberside in an attempt to put Saturday’s shitshow behind them – here’s all you need to know ahead of kick-off!

Saturday 26th December 2023

(6th) Hull City v Sunderland (9th)

Championship

MKM Stadium

Kick-Off: 15:00

The development…
Well, for Michael Beale, things went about as terribly as they could have on his first day of work, watching on the touchline as Coventry hammered his side on a Saturday afternoon. We played some brilliant stuff, as usual, but as has also recently become the standard for Sunderland, we were unable to convert our chances and our poor defending meant that we gave up three careless goals without getting any credit.

The booing and jeering that occurred during the game may have resulted from a number of issues that eventually boiled over and spilled onto the field, but Beale must have learned from it that he won’t have a lot of time to prove himself to our supporters and that losses like the one from the weekend can’t happen too often.

Even without the outcome of the previous game, this is one of the hardest games of the season to play, so you’d have to admit that a trip to sixth-place Hull wasn’t at the top of Beale’s Christmas list this year. That being said, our away form has been pretty awful this season.

Beale will need to shuffle the pack after such a crushing loss, and it will be intriguing to watch how many changes he makes to his team given the loss of Niall Huggins to what appears to be a season-ending injury. We should consider trying something else up top and adding a striker to the team because Jenson Seelt performed well against Leeds and didn’t really deserve to lose his spot.

Under Liam Rosenior’s leadership, the Tigers have really established themselves in the Championship, and considering the caliber of players they have on their roster, I predict it will be challenging to unseat them after they have recently moved into the playoff spots.

Fortunately for Sunderland, Jaden Philoene, who has been among the best players in the Championship this season with six goals and five assists, is out due to a knee injury and won’t return until the end of January.

Regardless of the guys we play, it will undoubtedly be a difficult game since they have players like Jean Seri, Aaron Connolly, Scott Twine, Liam Delap, and Ozan Tufan, who leads them in scoring with seven goals this season.

Although they did lose their most recent game, 3-2 at Ashton Gate to Bristol City, they proved last week that they have goals in their lineup and can expose Sunderland’s weak defense with a couple of solid victories against Boro and Cardiff.

As usual, it seems to come down to which Sunderland team shows up. If it’s the one we had against Leeds, Hull will have a lot of difficulty defeating us; if it’s the one that defeated Coventry, we’ll be humiliated once more. As the New Year approaches, the pressure will be increasing on the club’s decision-makers and new Head Coach.

Head to head… at Hull

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 8
• Draws: 7
• Hull City wins: 8
• Sunderland goals: 28
• Hull City goals: 30
• Last time we met… at the MKM Stadium
• Saturday 17th December 2022
  

  Championship

  Hull City 1-1 Sunderland

• [Tufan 82’ – Stewart 74’ (Embleton sent-off 59’)]

  Sunderland: Patterson, Gooch, O’Nien, Batth (Ballard), Alese (Cirkin), Evans, Neil, Diallo (Ba), Embleton, Clarke (Roberts), Simms (Stewart) Substitutes not used: Bass, Bennette

  Hull City: Ingram, Coyle (Sinik), Greaves, Woods, Christie, McLoughlin (Vale), Smith (Tufan), Seri, Estupinan, Slater, Longman Substitutes not used: Lo-Tutala, Elder, Figueiredo, Docherty

  Attendance: 18,120

  Played for both…

  Tony Norman

  

  Over a 15-year period, Tony Norman made over 600 appearances between the two clubs. a magnificent goalie on his day and an amazing servant to both clubs.

  made some crucial stops to help the Lads get to the FA Cup final in 1992 and played a significant part in Sunderland’s comeback to the first division under Denis Smith.