Sunderland play host to Bristol City on Saturday afternoon looking to strengthen their hold of a Championship playoff spot.

At a time when the Black Cats are fifth in the standings, Bristol City are only in 16th spot despite remaining unbeaten since the turn of the year.

Match preview

With Ross Stewart having been ruled out for the remainder of the season, Sunderland are up against it to remain in the top six from now through to May.

However, Tony Mowbray's side have posted victories with clean sheets against Reading and Queens Park Rangers over the past week, scoring four goals in the process.

Although none of those have come from Leeds United loanee Joe Gelhardt, Sunderland are finding ways to win, and every victory over the coming weeks and months will take them closer to a surprise promotion spot.

Mowbray will not be getting away, though, with the North East outfit having failed to win three successive matches in the Championship all season.

While that is a possibility at the weekend, Sunderland are squaring off against one of the current form teams in English football.

Bristol City and consistency have barely featured in the same sentence for a number of years, yet Nigel Pearson's have produced the latter since the turn of the year.

In all competitions, the Robins have gone 10 matches without suffering defeat, a period which has included five wins, five draws and a place in the FA Cup fifth round.

Nevertheless, the 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic in midweek came as a blow, Bristol City failing to convert a half-time lead and missing out on moving into the top half of the table.

Despite that disappointment, Pearson will appreciate that the bigger picture sees Bristol City sit just seven points adrift of the top six with a match in hand on Watford who currently hold that position.

Team News

Mowbray is expected to hand a recall to Edouard Michut, who was given a rest for the trip to QPR earlier this week.

Alex Pritchard appears likely to drop out, while Amad Diallo is also in line to return ahead of Abdoullah Ba.

The rest of the Sunderland XI should stay the same with Dennis Cirkin having to remain patient for another start at left-back after injury.

Having opted to rotate a number of players in midweek, Pearson is expected to recall those who were only selected as replacements on that occasion.

Sam Bell, Mark Sykes and Nahki Wells should all feature in the final third, with Andreas Weimann, Anis Mehmeti and Harry Cornick dropping out.

Sunderland possible starting lineup:
Patterson; Hume, Ballard, Batth, Alese; O'Nien, Michut, Roberts, Diallo, Clarke; Gelhardt

Bristol City possible starting lineup:
O'Leary; Tanner, Vyner, Atkinson, Pring; James, Williams; Sykes, Scott, Bell; Wells

We say: Sunderland 2-1 Bristol City

With Bristol City having avoided defeat since the back end of December, they are playing with enough belief to earn a positive result versus most teams in the second tier. However, we fancy a Sunderland side spurred on by their home support to edge this fixture by the odd goal in three.

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