In-form Sky Blues look for repeat of last year’s thriller
CAN ROBINS’ MEN PRODUCE ANOTHER STUNNING AWAY-DAY DISPLAY?
TODAY’S Sunderland v Coventry City match at the Stadium of Light has a lot to live up to if it wants to be anywhere near as entertaining as April’s humdinger.
The incredible 5-4 Sky Blues away victory will live long in the memory of those supporters who were there.
City travel to the North East today with their tails up, having risen to third from top in League One after beating Rochdale last time.
The Black Cats appear to be in a state of flux after sacking manager Jack Ross and replacing him with former Bolton boss Phil Parkinson, who has overseen two wins, two draws and five defeats in all competitions since coming in last month. Their last four games have seen them eliminated from two competitions, first knocked out of the EFL Trophy and on Tuesday night dumped out of the FA Cup by Gillingham in a first round replay,
But don’t let that fool you into a false sense of security.
Make no mistake, the Wearsiders have a squad packed with talent and are a formidable outfit on their day, putting five past Tranmere in Parkinson’s first home game in charge.
The experts at iScout have looked at the analytics and crunched the numbers and come up with some fascinating facts and figures.
Saturday’s match sees the hosts, who are the fourth oldest squad in League One, come up against a Sky Blues side who are second youngest in the division.
The secret to success for any visiting team at the Stadium of Light is keeping a clean sheet because the stats show that if Sunderland score then they either win or draw.
And their home form is pretty good, having not lost a league game yet this term – winning five and drawing two of their seven games to date – which is in stark contrast to Coventry who are yet to register a win on the road, having managed six draws and one defeat.
The four games Sunderland have lost away saw them fail to score in all of them. If the Black Cats, who have former City star Marc McNulty and proven Will Grigg in their ranks, do find the back of the net, they’re more likely to get ahead in the first half, having scored 63 per cent of their goals in the opening 45 minutes.
At the back, where they added Sky Blue pair Jordan Willis and Lee Burge in the summer, Sunderland are particularly good at seeing out games.
Coventry have grabbed plenty of late goals this season, scoring 40 per cent of their haul in the last 30 minutes of matches but face a Sunderland side who have only conceded twice in the last half an hour.
Mark Robins’ men have also failed to score on six occasions, with Jordy Hiwula the biggest offender, having missed eight good chances.
On the plus side, although City continue to have a mini striker crisis with Max Biamou set to serve his third and final suspension this weekend and Matty Godden still out injured, the team have produced 12 different scorers so far this season, contributing to 22 goals in total.