Cats’ boss Grayson out for revenge

SIMON Grayson accepted Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvahal’s apology through gritted teeth in December as a 95th-minute goal ‘robbed’ Preston of victory at Deepdale.

But Grayson hopes he will be the one apologising for getting his own back when he takes Sunderland to Hillsborough tonight.

“I have had a good relationship with Carlos in recent years, he is a really nice bloke – mind he robbed us blind when we were at Preston last year, scoring in the 95th minute when we absolutely battered them and drew 1-1,” said Grayson, grimacing at the memory of that New Year’s Day game.

“He was very apologetic hopefully it is the other way round tonight and I am apologising for beating them 1-0!”

Sunderland head to South Yorkshire on the back of a solid start, having followed their draw at home to Derby County in the Championship opener with a 3-1 win at Norwich City on Sunday.

Wednesday have collected only one point from their first two fixtures, but they represent arguably the toughest test so far for Sunderland having finished fourth last season before losing to Huddersfield Town in the play-off semi-finals.

The Owls have plenty of firepower in the shape of players such as Jordan Rhodes, Fernando Forestieri, former Sunderland man Steven Fletcher, Sam Winnall, and Gary Hooper, but Grayson has done his homework.

He said: “It’s my job to know about individuals and collectively what they do as a team, we have every team watched probably three times before we play them and have reports.

“Our preparation is good. Ultimately, it is what happens on a matchday situation.

“Will they get the breaks or will we? All these key factors can go a long way to deciding the outcome of a game.

“They have plenty of attacking options – but to get all of them into one team would be some formation!

“We are working out permutations. We will do the work we need to do. Whatever we do we need to make sure we carry out the gameplan.

“Sheffield Wednesday is a big football club with a huge fanbase up and down the country, Hillsborough is a great arena to go and play.

“Our players have to embrace that and put on another good performance.”