Sunderland are back on home soil tonight for the first of three home matches on the spin as Blackpool come to town.
Kicking off at 7:45pm, the Black Cats will put their unbeaten home league record on the line once again as they bid to extend it to 16 matches.
A frustrating draw at Oxford United halted hopes of securing back-to-back league wins for the first time since November as Marcus Browne rolled home Jerome Sinclair’s pass in the 87th minute to cancel out Jimmy Dunne’s first-half header.
It was a sucker punch. Cruel. A hard one to take. But the task in hand remains the same as the Black Cats gear up to face three home games – against Blackpool, Accrington Stanley and Gillingham - in the next seven days.
Sitting fourth, and with two/three games in hand on teams around them, Jack Ross knows his side will have to rekindle their early season form which has eluded them of late as they’ve drawn five of their last seven league matches.
That said, the lads have still only been beaten in the league twice and are able to boast one of the best defences in the league which has only been breached 27 times. As well as, Ross' side are on a 10-game unbeaten run which stretches back to December 2018.
Will Grigg looks set to light up the Stadium of Light for the first time since joining Sunderland on Deadine Day in January.
The Northern Ireland international striker, who signed from Wigan Athletic, made his debut at the Kassam Stadium on Saturday and will now hope to open his goalscoring account on his maiden appearance on Wearside.
Blackpool, on the other hand, have been rejuvenated lately and head to the north east unbeaten in their last five matches.
The Seasiders do also have a history of defeating promotion hopefuls on their own patch having put away Portsmouth 1-0 at Fratton Park in January before following that up with wins over Coventry City and then Walsall.
DON’T MISS THE ACTION
We’ve got three Hadrian’s Tipi’s on hire for the next week!
Cash turnstiles will be in operation for tonight’s home match – full details available here.
Streaming passes are also on sale now.
BBC Radio Newcastle’s Nick Barnes will be broadcasting live right here on safc.com from 7pm.
As ever, there will be comprehensive coverage across our digital channels including safc.com’s matchday blog and live updates on Twitter via @SunderlandAFC.
