Wigan. Again.

By: Lucas | February 8th, 2008

Sunderland on Saturday will play Wigan Athletic for the third time this season. Both previous ties ended in 3-0 losses for the Black Cats (league reality check at JJB in August and FA Cup disaster at Stadium of Light last month).

Sunderland have shown a decent home form this season, beating teams like Tottenham and Pompey, and having a winner vs Aston Villa taken away by a lousy referee’s lousy call. In fact the last home league loss for SAFC was the 4-0 drubbing by Man Utd on Boxing Day. So we SHOULD be able to produce a good result in this game, especially with the revenge theme looming in the minds of the players and fans.

Injuries, though. Damn:

Liam Miller, one of our only consistent mids this season, hurt himself in Ireland’s 1-0 loss to Brazil midweek. Fucking brilliant.
Kieran Richardson, who is great when he’s healthy, which is not very often the past few months, is out again after re-injuring his hamstring against Liverpool last weekend. Superb.
Other players still injured: Carlos Edwards (broken leg), Dwight Yorke (calf), Grant Leadbitter (foot), Danny Higganbotham (toe), and Ross Wallace who is done for the year with a torn knee. Oh, and new signing Andy Reid is still not match fit. Jesus Christ.

But there is good(?) news:

Kenwyne Jones will be in the starting IX after playing a full 90 for Trinidad and/or Tobago in their friendly vs Guadeloupe on Wednesday, though he may have to swim or paddle a canoe to get back to Wearside.
Dickson Etuhu returns to the team following his run out with Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations, and will probably slot right into the lineup to replace Miller.

It was never going to be easy for Sunderland to make something of this season, but they’re hanging in there and grabbing the results necessary to keep their heads just above water. This match vs Wigan is another 6-pointer, and another massively important game (they just keep getting more important as the season moves toward the stretch run). Both teams sit a mere 2 points from the drop zone; the loser of this match likely drops back into the shit.

I’ll be at the tavern at 7:00 AM to watch this one live, and if things aren’t going well by halftime I may start drinking heavily (also I’ve heard that occasionally getting drunk in the morning is good for you). So you’ll know why, if the quality of my grammar goes down and the quantity of my profane utterances goes up.