Blackburn Rovers vs Sunderland: Low confidence suggests a draw
Twelfth placed Blackburn host tenth placed Sunderland - with both within five points of relegation. Both teams have forgotten how to win - no win in eight for Blackburn and one win in eleven for Sunderland - suggesting that another draw may leave the pair in mid-table.
Twenty points for Blackburn at the halfway mark seems a good basis for survival. But with no-one cut adrift and no teams obviously worse than any other in the bottom half of the division there is no measure of safety in Blackburn's position. Blackburn are fighting hard at the moment and although they haven't won in eight games - four draws in the last six games (including results against Liverpool and Chelsea) have seen the club maintain a low mid-table slot. David Dunn remains injured and Blackburn do look a lot less lively without him.
Sunderland have drifted into the relegation scrap after a run of one win in eleven since beating Liverpool (via a beach ball) in mid October. So despite being tenth, second bottom Hull are only five points worse off - perhaps when Steve Bruce was suggesting that British coaches should get more time he wasn't only talking about Mark Hughes. Plenty of speculation that Kenwyne Jones might be sold in January - but looking at the way he combined with Darren Bent for Sunderland's goal on Boxing Day this would break an enviable partnership. But other than that mad game at Eastlands only Darren Bent has scored for Sunderland since October - Jones really needs to start weighing in with some goals.
Blackburn Rovers vs Sunderland; Kick Off 3:00pm 28 Dec 2009
Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).
Dave Blackburn : 1 - 0
Chris Cox : 0 - 0
Graham Enwright : 1 - 2
Sue Gardener : 1 - 1
Chris Goodwin : 1 - 3
Paul Grech (sqf) : TBC
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 3 - 1
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : TBC
Peter Lee : 1 - 0
Don McMahon : 1 - 0
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 1 - 0
Paul O'Meara (sqf) : TBC
Dave Nash : 1 - 1
Stephen Orford (sqf) : TBC
Tony Ratton : 1 - 1
Peter Rendle : 1 - 1
Dan Taylor : 2 - 1
Andy Wakeman : 2 - 1
Isaac Williams : 1 - 0
Mark Williams : 1 - 2
Panel Verdict
The panel is split but is tentatively suggesting a 1-0 Blackburn win.
Home: 8; Draw: 5; Away: 3; TBC: 4.
* Do we have it right, or do you know better? Please don't bother with derisory comments on the predictions after the match - unless you also pulled us up before it!
