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Back the icy stalemate on Wearside

For this evening's visitors Stoke boast no less than six former Sunderland players (Danny Higginbotham, Dean Whitehead, Thomas Sorensen, Liam Lawrence, Danny Collins and Rory Delap) and a former manager (Tony Pulis' assistant Peter Reid), while even sub keeper Steve Simonsen was born just over the road in South Shields.

So the law of football dictates that at least one of these will get their name on the scoresheet tonight (although Reid is unlikely). Liam Lawrence fell foul of Roy Keane after three relatively successful seasons on Wearside, so he's a good shout at [9.2] to score, while former Black Cats skipper Dean Whitehead is another at [18.5].

And the pressure will be on the home side, who haven't won in the league since their impressive 1-0 victory over Arsenal in November. It means they're now only three points from the drop and has Sunderland fans once again looking through their hands at the teams below them, rather than glaring eagerly at those above as they were doing only a few months ago.

For the first time in a long while, however, Steve Bruce has a near-full strength squad to choose from, and although Alan Hutton has not signed in time to make the matchday squad, Bruce is likely to be able to name his current first-choice back four, with Turner, Kilgallon, Mensah and McCartney set to feature.

They'll need to be on top form if they are to successfully repel the human sling, but the red and whites have looked pathetically frail at the back at times recently, so we won't be backing the home clean sheet at [2.6]. Instead the both teams to score bet looks the more likely at [1.94].

Bruce reckons this game plus Saturday's home encounter with Wigan will define Sunderland's season, a pretty bold statement to make, but probably correct. A win tonight would put Sunderland above the Potters and put them six clear of the bottom three, and another on Saturday could have them bothering the top ten again. Anything less than four points, though, and there'll be concerned glances all around Wearside.

Sunderland are [2.22] to win, with Stoke's poor away form meaning they are [3.9]. But the draw looks good value to us at [3.4], with the price of [7.4] available for 1-1. And if you don't fancy backing one of the Sunderland old boys to score, there's only one other man worth thinking about - Darren Bent is [5.7] to net first.

Sunderland v Stoke City
Kick-off: 8pm
Live coverage on ESPN

Who do you think is going to win tonight? Can Brucey claim the much-needed three points? Or will Pulis' Potters deepen his misery at [3.4]? Let us know below...

Published: 1 Feb 2010 - Tags: Lee Cattermole , Steve Bruce , Tony Pulis