Bolton V Sunderland: Crunch Time For Black Cats

At the start of the season Sunderland fans were realistically hoping to be in a position similar to Wigan, mid-table and safe from any relegation talk, plodding along building on the previous year, what they didn’t want was an away fixture at Bolton in May to become the most important game of the season for them.

Well, every game in the past few weeks has been super important, but with a Monday night trip to Portsmouth, and a home tie against Chelsea, many Sunderland fans are looking at this game as the teams last chance to pull themselves out of the relegation battle, a fact made all the more imposing as two of the teams below, Newcastle and Middlesbrough, meet each other on Monday night.

A win wouldn’t make Sunderland safe, but would let them breath a sigh of relief, knowing that the task ahead of any team wanting to catch them would be that much harder, but on recent performances a win seems a long way off. 

Bolton’s form has not been fantastic and although not mathematically so, they are as good as safe, but they want to make sure of it and they too will be searching for a win, with Middlesbrough being their only victory in the last eight outings.  Their team could be boosted by the return of Ricardo Gardiner, but they look to still be without Vaz Te, Davies and O’Brien (all knee) for the meting at the Reebok.

Ricky Sbragia takes his Sunderland team back to his former club without £9 million goalkeeper Graig Gordon (knee), and left back George McCartney (calf) but boosted by the return of Teemu Tainio in midfield, and a very large contingent of travelling fans.  Sunderland, who were visited by Champion Boxer (and supporter) Tony Jeffries during the week, look set to start up with only one forward in an effort to strengthen the midfield, especially from a defensive standpoint, which may be viewed as a negative step, but with desperate defeats at West Brom and at home to Everton the Black Cats are in need of a change and this could well be the catalyst that pushes them towards safety.