Sunderland v Shrewsbury preview: Town travelling for points, not a day out

Sunderland aren’t just big for League One, they are huge – but Sam Ricketts isn’t treating Town’s visit to the Stadium of Light as a day out.

The Black Cats set a League One record attendance on Boxing Day and it will be another cauldron atmosphere when Shrewsbury come to town tomorrow.

Sunderland are unbeaten on home soil, with the the third best record after 11 games, while Town are desperate to improve their record of the poorest travellers in the division.

Town players owe their travelling supporters – and manager – a performance after an underwhelming Boxing Day display.

A dreadful start, for the second time on the road under Ricketts, made it feel like the game was lost after 25 seconds. Shrews’ display for the first half was poor.

Jack Ross’ Sunderland, meanwhile, were thrilling much of their 46,000 crowd with a deserved home win, despite getting a little help from officials who ruled out a perfectly valid Bradford goal that had crossed the line.

Ricketts, meanwhile, was stewing over a poor display at Accrington Stanley in far less glamorous surroundings. But he was defiant on what the approach will be for comfortably the grandest away day of the season.

“It’s another game. We assess Accrington, cover the areas that we need to and we’ll go to win the game,” said the Town boss.

“They’re a huge side. They’re not a big side, they’re huge, especially for this league.

“Forty-six thousand is a huge number but I go there full of optimism that if we execute our game plan and basics as I know we can and as I’ve seen, then we can win the game.

“If we go there and we don’t then we’ll make it very hard for ourselves.”

Ricketts delivered a firm message when asked if Town can embrace the setting and surroundings of the Stadium of Light, an arena that hosted Premier League football a little over 18 months ago.

He replied: “Not interested in that. I’m interested in winning the game.

“It’s not a day out. It’s another game to try to get three points.”

Town will be searching for a better start in the north east than their two previous away games under Ricketts, where they have behind inside three minutes on both.

And the boss points to basics as to where his team lacked, particularly on Boxing Day.

“It’s hugely frustrating, not just to staff but to players as well,” Ricketts added.

“No-one wants to go and give a goal away so early on so you can never accuse the players of that.

“There are some little basics and a little bit of game leadership that we need to get better at as much as anything.

“We can’t be giving soft goals away and expect to win games. We need to make every team fight really hard for their goals. There were two or three things for Accrington’s first goal that really disappointed me, two or three of my basics which didn’t happen.”

Omar Beckles remains a doubt with a niggling injury that has seen him sidelined for two games, while Ricketts may switch his attacking options for the trip.

Aaron Amadi-Holloway went off at half-time with an illness and may miss out on a starting spot at the Stadium of Light.