Paullow

Congo vs Ghana on Sunday meaning one of our lads will be out, probably won't be back in time for QPR, but maybe Derby next Saturday. Hope its Atsu, but Mbemba could be an option in midfield.

3-3

Khazri staying a bit longer (would at least be an extra option for them and / or might make it harder for them to sell to bring in new players), plus Slimani and Mahrez will be back a lot sooner now for Leicester. Decent. Hoping Ivory Coast beat Morocco tomorrow evening as well

Same for me, put Coutinho in I got rid of Eriksen as I figured Man City (a) was supposedly tougher than Swansea (h) and was going to put either of these 2 in. I selected Firmino but then checked the most transferred player and saw that loads were putting Coutinho in so i went for him instead Also, Virgil Van Dyke was 4 mins away from completing 60 mins and getting the clean sheet bonus, ended up getting 1 point. Not my weekend this one.

Gabon vs Cameroon coming up in the African Nations Cup at 7pm. Would like a Gabon win here. Win and they are through, lose and they are out, draw and they will probably go out. Didier Ndong isn't great but he is a lot better than Rodwell, Pienaar, Larsson etc so the longer he is away from Sunderland the better as far as i am concerned. Plus, i've quite like this tournament and it will be a lot better if the host nation stick around to at least the 2nd week.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Northern_Premier_League

Again, Stourbridge do have a game in hand of Spenn though and have the same amount of points. Spenny seem to have picked things up again these past few games, but they had a shocking run (by their standards) just after the MK Dons game and around Xmas period. I still consider Whitby local, especially if you look at the map on wiki and see Frickley as the nearest team after that, so it is nice to see all 3 of those sat 1,2 and 3 as it currently stands, but as I say, Stourbridge do seem a bit of a thorn in 2 local sides going up.

Although FA Cup giant killers Stourbridge are potentially just 4 points behind them if they win their game in hand and are in cracking form. Not lot in 13 league games since losing to Blyth in October, winning 9 of those. Will probably come down to those 2 like it did with Blyth and Darlo last season.

Yep, especially when things aren't going their way like the red card today.

Fiesty

Well that's not great...

A draw is far better here than a Sheff Wed win How not? no it isnt brighton have a game in hand and are clearly the 2nd best team in the league. Wednesday have some good form now but I doubt they'll keep it up. Even if they win they'll be 7 points behind us having played 1 game more (so 10 really). Brighton get a point then win their game in hand and they'll be level with us. Wednesday are in their 'huddersfield at the start of the season' moment Fair enough mate, i guess it comes down to how wary of Sheffield Wednesday you are. To me they are one of the best in the league and certainly as much of a threat as Leeds.

As concerned as i am about Leeds, so yes.

Obvious we want to win the league, but the difference between finishing 1st to 2nd compared to 2nd to 3rd is monumental. We're still on course to win the league and nothing will be decided regarding that tonight, but if we were to finish 2nd it wouldn't be the end of the world at all. We won the league 7 years ago ahead of WBA, i'm sure the don't care now sitting in 8th in the Premier League that the didn't win the league, whereas Brighton last year in top 2 of most of the season, finished 3rd in a 3 horse race and didn't go up. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the best teams in this league, in very good form and certainly as good as Leeds and as big a threat in my mind. Win tonight and they go level on points with Leeds, would much rather there wasn't other teams in serious contention. If it was a Derby or even a Huddersfield then i wouldn't be as bothered but Weds are definitely a threat. A draw would see Brighton drop points at home, we'd go 3 clear with a win tomorrow and the wouldnt be able to pass us with a win over Cardiff in their rearranged game on Tuesday and another promotion threat would also drop 2 points. A draw is a no brainer as far as i am concerned

Definitely

A draw is far better here than a Sheff Wed win How not? no it isnt

A draw is far better here than a Sheff Wed win

There's been 8 games so far this tournament, 5 draws and the though sides who won all had Newcastle representation - typical, looks like the 3 could be there for a long time. Granted, Ghana and Senegal were favourites to win their games but so were Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Gabon and none of those managed to win their opening games. Sunderland's 3 players either drew or lost their first games - would be nice if they stayed in it for a long period.

Have we only got 10 men?

Overseas coverage again of our game vs Rotherham on Sat 21st at 3pm.

3/1 (best price 18/5) on Birmingham looks cracking value

Quite interesting seeing the contrast of his goal stats in Sky games vs non Sky games He has 19 goals in 20 league games overall On Sky, he missed the Brighton game but has scored 2 goals in our other 8 live games, both against Leeds. So in the other 12 games (not on TV) he has 17 goals.

Won't make any difference mate. The only league game he will miss is Brentford, regardless of what we do in the cup

I was tempted to use mine, but decided to wait until a week on Friday in case there's any suspensions / injuries after the FA Cup. I've got 2 free transfers but will likely just take a -8 hit instead and use 2 more. I've got 3m in the bank and Zaha and Slimani off to the ACON. going to get rid of Payet as well - they've had their gift fixtures of Hull and Burnley at home and he's not really done much, too expensive for 9m+ when you can get Sanchez for a million or two more, Arsenal have got some decent fixtures coming up as well. Also got Deeney who is in a shit Watford side and you can get Defoe in for less than a million extra

Hopefully draw and get that Brentford game off Sky.