Match Preview: Coventry City v Sunderland - everything you need to know ahead of kick-off!

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Saturday 25th February 2023

(11th) Coventry City v Sunderland (8th)

Championship

Coventry Building Society Arena

Kick-Off: 12:30

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Tickets & Match Coverage

Tickets: Tickets are sold out.

TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is available via Sky Sports.

Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)

Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.com!

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The build-up...

Our record playing Coventry at their place stinks. Even when we play them away but they play at St Andrews, as we did back in 2020 when we last met, we still take nothing.

We have to go back to 1985 for our last away win against Coventry City, when Len Ashurst’s side ran out 1-0 winners thanks to Jon Moore scoring one of his three goals for the Lads. This means we haven’t picked up a win there in the last ten attempts.

Records like that however, are there to be broken and Tony Mowbray will be looking for a reaction to our below-par midweek performance at Rotherham United. The bigger picture is that we still in a fantastic position that is perhaps exceeding expectations for most fans this season, as we sit 5th in the table with five points separating Luton Town in 4th down to West Brom in 10th.

Before our blip at Rotherham we were undefeated in 8 games away from home as we still boast the 5th best record on the road in the division, so there’s every reason for the Lads to head to the West Midlands with confidence they can get a result in front of the Sky cameras as we did recently at home to Middlesbrough.

Photo by Athena Pictures/Getty Images

Mark Robins Coventry City side have had the rare luxury of a midweek without a fixture this as they have been able to spend 7 days purely focusing on the visit of the Lads this lunchtime.

They also come into the fixture in good form, winning their last two fixtures and more specifically on home soil, they have only lost one in the last 11 games.

Our attacking players may need to be at their best today as only four sides in the division have conceded fewer goals on their own patch and it’s their home form that sees them hovering around the playoffs in 11th.

There are only six points between us and the Sky Blues and they will see it as a perfect opportunity to close the gap between themselves and the top six this afternoon.

Photo by Ian Hodgson/PA Images via Getty Images

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The betting...

The bookies fancy a home win this afternoon with odds of 5/4, with the Lads priced at 9/4 to take maximum points and the draw is around 21/10.

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Head to head... at Coventry City

(All competitions)

• Sunderland wins: 3
• Draws: 6
• Coventry City wins: 13
• Sunderland goals: 22
• Coventry City goals: 43

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Last time we met... away from home

Sunday 1st March 2020

League One

St Andrews

Coventry City 1-0 Sunderland

[Godden 2’]

Sunderland: J. McLaughlin, O’Nien, Willis (Semenyo), Ozturk, Flanagan, Hume (Lafferty), Dobson, Power, Gooch, Maguire, Wyke Substitutes not used: Burge, C. McLaughlin, Lynch, Scowen, Grigg

Coventry City: Marosi, Dabo, McCallum, Rose, McFadzean, Hyam, Allen (Bakayoko), Kelly, Godden (Shipley), Walsh, O’Hare Substitutes not used: Wilson, Pask, Westbrooke, Giles, Biamou

Attendance: 10,055

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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Played for both...

Terry Butcher

Terry Butcher had the distinction of playing for and managing both clubs in the role as player-manager, but I suspect both sets of fans rather he hadn’t.

Photo by Graham Chadwick/EMPICS via Getty Images

Don Hutchison

I remember thinking he was a good player when he signed from Everton for £2.5 million in the summer of 2000, but for many of his 39 appearances on Wearside, he made us tick.

For whatever reason, the Scottish international left Sunderland to join West Ham United the following summer for £5 million and it was seemingly downhill from there for a good while after.

Hutchison had an 18 month stay in the West Midlands across 2005-06 where he made 32 appearances for the Sky Blues.

Getty Images

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