Marcus Braddock previews the weekend's visit of Sunderland in the Sky Bet League One
This weekend, Shrewsbury Town welcome AFC Sunderland to the Montgomery Waters Meadow in Skybet League One. The Black Cats are in their second season in League One after relegation from the Championship at the end of the 2017/18 season. They started the season with a draw followed by three wins but have had a patchy set of results since then, losing three, drawing twice and winning three times in the league. The area in which they've found the least success this season has been in away games with just two wins from seven. In addition to that, Sunderland hadn't kept a clean sheet all season a record that cost manager Jack Ross his job. Phil Parkinson took the reins last week and the ex-Bradford and Bolton Manager hit the ground running with Sunderland's first clean sheet of the season beating Tranmere, 5-0 at the Stadium of Light.
Top Scorers
Chris Maguire 5
Lynden Gooch 4
Aiden McGeady 3
Assists
Chris Maguire 2
Aiden McGeady 2
Mark McNulty 2
Luke O'Nien 2
Head to Head
We've only played each-other eleven times and we've yet to record a victory over the Black Cats. Our best result against them is a draw and we've managed three of those, two 1-1's and a 0-0. Sunderland have beaten us seven times in the league but they haven't scored more than two against us in a game.
Referee
Jarred Gillet from Australia is in his first season in English football after a successful career at the highest level down under. The 32-year-old also has international experience and now wants to try his hand in England with the eventual goal of officiating in the Premier League. So far this season he's been in charge of eight games, has yet to show a red card and has a yellow card average of just under four per game.
Squad News
Charlie Wyke is out with an ankle injury, Lynden Gooch is also out with an ankle injury but Aiden McGeady is back from a suspension.
Town will be without Ethan Ebanks-Blake, Romaine Vincalot and Callum Lang. Daniel Udoh may also be missing.
Summary
This is going to be another difficult game with Sunderland suddenly firing in all cylinders under a new manager. One or two of my Town supporting pals have suggested that we're likely to be well beaten if both clubs play the way they did in their last games. They're not wrong and Sam Ricketts is more than aware that we have to do better to get anything against such a massive club. Defensively, we've been the better of the two protagonists by quite a way but Sunderland have a much better goal difference. It should be an interesting battle between the two but the weather may also be a factor with heavy rain forecast through most of Saturday. We've never beaten Sunderland and I have a sneaky feeling that we could just nick a win if we perform to our potential.
COYB!!!