SUNDERLAND v AFC BOURNEMOUTH: They’ve got Jermaine Defoe he hasn’t scored in 9 in a row

By Tales From The South End - April, 28th 2017

AFC Bournemouth need two more points to reach the magic 40 and five points to better last season’s tally while Sunderland look all but relegated. They haven’t won in nine games, picked up one point and didn’t score in eight of those games. The Sunderland fans are not happy. We spoke to Pete Sixsmith from fan site AFC Bournemouth v Sunderland Match Preview with Salut Sunderland

Q. Sunderland look to have an impossible task to stay up this season. Do you think it is still possible?

No. Relegation is a certainty and has been since Southampton won 4-0 at The Stadium of Light in the depths of winter. The team is poor, the players are desperate to get away and the manager has been a catastrophe.

Q. To have any chance of staying up Sunderland have to beat Bournemouth. How do you think Sunderland will line-up to try and get a win?

They will make a couple of changes from the debacle at Middlesbrough on Wednesday night but it will not make one iota of difference. Rodwell will come in for Gibson, Love for Jones and that’s it. It is a very poor squad, top heavy with former Evertonians and players who have failed at Sunderland on a consistent basis.

Q. Which AFC Bournemouth player(s) will Moyes be targeting in his matchday gameplan?

Ah, you are assuming he has a gameplan are you? He will probably mumble that we have to pick up King and try and stop Pugh but by then the players will be playing with their phones or dreaming of a transfer in the summer.

Q. We would love to have Jermaine Defoe back at AFC Bournemouth. Do you think he will leave if you go down?

That’s about as certain (and as unfortunate) as Theresa May winning the General Election. Bournemouth is a possible destination for him. He looks as if he has had enough of Sunderland now (I know how he feels) and hasn’t scored for nine games.

Q. Will Moyes stay if Sunderland are relegated? Or, more to the point do you want him to stay?

The owner and the CEO are on record as saying that he will. His pride may make him hang on but he is so unpopular with a large section of the 40,000 who have turned up every week that he may yet change his mind.

Q. Sunderland’s recent home record very much matches AFC Bournemouth’s recent away record. What do you think the score will be?

I would expect Bournemouth to win this one. It pits an intelligent, ambitious and flexible young coach against David Moyes who, as he keeps reminding us, has the fourth best winning record in the Premier League. If you are there, be prepared for an unpleasant atmosphere as the (relatively) small crowd persistently calls for the Scotsman to “get hisself awae hame” – only it will not be that polite Prediction; 0-2