Welcome to RK Sunderland

Last updated : 15 December 2006 By Tony Scholes
Dean Whitehead
They are back with us this season after breaking the Premiership record of least points in a season, one they had created themselves only three years previously. That led to the sacking of manager Mick McCarthy and the curtain came down on 2005/06 with a familiar figure to both of us in charge at the Stadium of Light, none other than Kevin Ball.

Massive changes during the summer meant that Bally returned to working with the youngsters in the academy, and when the new consortium failed to bring in a new manager, the incoming Chairman Niall Quinn took over.

Now Quinn was a damn good player, a decent bloke too by all accounts, and we all recall his wonderful testimonial that raised an incredible amount of money for charities, but he hasn't perfected the art of management as yet and by the time he finally departed that particular role after six games his side were bottom of the league and had been dumped out of the League Cup by Bury.

He'd also made a number of changes to the playing staff with no fewer than six new players coming in to the club. His first signings were Norwich keeper Darren Ward and Spanish midfielder Oriol Riera from Barcelona. Riera has since joined Southend on loan.

Birmingham captain Kenny Cunningham was next and then in the week the season got underway in came former Newcastle full back Robbie Elliott along with Clive Clarke from West Ham. Clarke had been a target for Steve Cotterill a year earlier when at Stoke.

As results went from bad to worse, Quinn thought he had been successful in bringing his old striker partner Kevin Phillips back to the north east, but he opted for West Brom and that left the manager to make one last move in the transfer market with the £1.7 million capture of Swedish midfielder Tobias Hysen, son of former Liverpool defender Glenn, from Djuurgardens.

Just days after that signing he stood down with the appointment of Roy Keane as manager, a surprise choice given the history between Quinn and Keane. The new boss was left with virtually just a few days to strengthen his squad before the transfer window closed. He waited until the last day before making no less than six new signings, all six of them players that Keane had played alongside for either club or country.

In came Graham Kavanagh and David Connolly from Wigan, Ross Wallace and former Sunderland defender Stanislav Varga from Celtic, Manchester United midfielder Liam Miller and finally Dwight Yorke who had been playing in Australia for Sydney.

To add to those six there have been two loan signings made, Lewin Nyatanga from Derby in October and right on the loan deadline Spurs' goalkeeper Marton Fulop who made his debut last week.

There's certainly been an improvement, and half of the games under Keane's management have been won, whilst they have suffered five defeats since he took over. They were bottom when he took over, they are now thirteenth, but so tight is the league that they will go a point clear of us tomorrow if they beat us.

Click HERE to see all RK Sunderland's results this season.

The Clarets will be looking to get back to winning ways, after collecting just one point from two games on the road since the home win against Leeds, points dropped in both games after penalties went against us.

A win is more than overdue against this particular opposition, the last time we beat them in the league was back in April 1973. That was the night Paul Fletcher got both in a 2-0 win against the FA Cup Finalists, and eventual winners, to clinch our return to the First Division.

Team News

Roy Keane will be without three defenders for this game, Stephen Wright (ankle), Nyron Nosworthy (abdominal injury) and Kenny Cunningham (knee ligaments). Wright's absence is no surprise, the injury ravaged full back has hardly played in the last two years. Nosworthy did play as recently as November but Cunningham has been out now for almost two months.

Last week Marton Fulop made his debut in goal when Darren Ward cried off with illness, but Ward is available again and is expected to return to the side. He won his place after displacing film star Ben Alnwick earlier in the season.

RK Sunderland are expected to line up: Darren Ward, Dean Whitehead, Stephen Caldwell, Stanislav Varga, Danny Collins, Stephen Elliott, Graham Kavanagh, Ross Wallace, Liam Miller, David Connolly, Darryl Murphy. Subs: Marton Fulop, Grant Leadbitter, Robbie Elliott, Lewin Nyatanga, Dwight Yorke.

Click HERE to see the full RK Sunderland squad.

Steve Cotterill has to make changes with both Jon Harley and James O'Connor ruled out with suspension after both collecting their fifth yellow cards from the dreadful Mike Thorpe last week. It is the first time O'Connor has been suspended since signing for the Clarets whilst for Harley, he missed the visit to his old club Sheffield United just a year ago.

I can't see there being many changes and much will depend on who he plays at left back. The obvious candidates seem to be Frank Sinclair and Chris McCann, but with O'Connor out moving McCann would see us have to make two changes in the centre of midfield. For that reason I think he'll play Frank there and then it is between Micah Hyde and Alan Mahon for the midfield role with Hyde my tip to get back into the side.

That would see a Burnley team of: Danny Coyne, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Frank Sinclair, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Kyle Lafferty. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster, Alan Mahon, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Graham Branch.

Last Meeting

Ask any Burnley fan what they remember of our last meeting against Sunderland at the Turf and I think they will probably make reference to Ade Akinbiyi's debut, the one that lasted just a few seconds over two and a half minutes.

Ben Alnwick's co-star Liam Lawrence had given the visitors a 1-0 first half lead in front of the Sky cameras as they looked to go top of the league. But with Burnley threatening, in a game played just three days after our cup defeat at Ewood, Ade was introduced with ten minutes to go. He had a chance from a header, was fouled only to see the decision go against him and then decided to take out all his frustration out on George McCartney.

We wondered what on earth we had signed, but as it turned out it was so out of character and we were never to see anything quite like that from him again. As for the game, Marcus Stewart, now one of those players currently rendered unemployable by the ridiculous transfer window system, added a second after a clear foul on Gary Cahill had gone unnoticed by referee Williamson.

We had to wait a while longer to see Ade, he'd a three match ban to serve, whilst for Sunderland it was the top of the league on their way to promotion.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff (Ade Akinbiyi 80), Gary Cahill, Frank Sinclair, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant (Lee Roche 45), Pete Whittingham, Jean-Louis Valois, Graham Branch. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington.

Sunderland: Thomas Myhre, Dean Whitehead, Gary Breen, Stephen Caldwell, George McCartney, Liam Lawrence, Jeff Whitley, Carl Robinson, Sean Thornton (Andy Welsh 71), Michael Bridges (Chris Brown 85), Marcus Stewart. Subs not used: Ben Alnwick, Danny Collins, Neill Collins.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1994/95

1

a

0-0

17,700

.

.

.

h

1-1

15,121

Eyres(pen)

2003/04

1

a

1-1

29,852

I Moore

..

h

1-2

18,852

Little

2004/05

C

a

1-2

27,102

Branch

.

.

h

0-2

12,103

.

Click HERE to see all our results against Sunderland. the first of these was a 3-2 win in the north east in September 1890 and was Sunderland's first ever league game.