Sunderland v Bolton preview
Monday 30 October 2017 18:45, UK
Sunderland defender Tyias Browning is out of Tuesday night's bottom-of-the-table Sky Bet Championship showdown with Bolton.
The Everton loanee is yet to shake off the hamstring problem which has sidelined him for the last three games, although he is manager Simon Grayson's only definite absentee. Grayson will monitor a series of players who picked up minor knocks during Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Bristol City as he looks to end a 10-month wait for a league win at the Stadium of Light.
Midfielder Paddy McNair returned from an 11-month lay-off with knee ligament damage as a second-half substitute at the weekend and will hope for further action, while defender Marc Wilson is close to being fit again after a groin problem.
Bolton boss Phil Parkinson is without Andy Taylor who was forced off midway through his side's draw at Fulham on Saturday with a back injury. Club officials believe Taylor's back injury is not as bad as first feared but it is still enough to rule him out of the crucial trip to the Stadium of Light.
The Trotters picked up a number of other knocks at Craven Cottage with substitutes Filipe Morais (stomach) and Adam Le Fondre (calf) facing late tests. Connor Hall is named in the Bolton squad while Antonee Robinson is on standby to start if Morais is ruled out.
Opta stats
Sunderland are unbeaten in seven league matches against Bolton (W5 D2) since a 4-1 defeat in the Premier League in November 2008.
Bolton did, however, win their last match against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, a 2-0 FA Cup victory in January 2013.
Sunderland are winless in 18 home games in all competitions (D7 L11), just one game shy of the record for an English league club held jointly by Dagenham & Redbridge (last winless game in February 2016), Derby County (August 2008) and Nottingham Forest (April 1999), who all went 19 home games without winning.
Aiden McGeady has scored more goals from outside of the box (4) than any other championship player this season. In fact, only Charlton's Ricky Holmes has scored as many goals from outside of the box (4) across the top 4 English leagues.
Prutton's prediction
23rd hosts 24th in the Sky Bet Championship and you feel like it's a must-win game for both. Simon Grayson seemed a shrewd appointment for Sunderland at the start of the season but it just hasn't gone right for him so far.
He'll need time but if results continue to go the way they are then it's unlikely he'll get much more of it, and it's a little unfortunate for them that they're meeting Bolton at a time when they've actually started picking up a few results. I fancy the Trotters to heap more misery on the Black Cats.
Prutton predicts: 0-1 (11/1 with Sky Bet)
