Sunderland vs Rotherham prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-08-18 14:00.
After losing in the play-offs last season, Sunderland are seemingly experiencing a hangover and are yet to get their first point in this campaign. They have been beaten 2-1 in Championship action by both Ipswich and Preston, but manager Tony Mowbray retains plenty of belief in his group of players to turn their form around as he believes the performance level of the team in both games has been “pretty high.”
The Black Cats certainly performed well and picked up strong results at the Stadium of Light at the back end of last season when they went five home games unbeaten (W1, D4) before beating Luton Town 2-1 in the home leg of the play-offs, form they’ll hope to quickly rediscover. Although they lost at home on the opening day of this season, an unbeaten home record against Rotherham dating back to 1959 (W9, D4) means Sunderland should approach this game with confidence.
Ahead of this round of fixtures, the Millers have the joint-weakest defence in the Championship after leaking four goals in defeat at Stoke City and a further two at home to Blackburn Rovers. They travel to the North East with one point on the board and winless, but having spurned a 2-0 lead in that Blackburn game, it’s fair to say that probably shouldn’t be the case.
Given life on the road has been pretty fruitless for Matt Taylor’s side, who won only two league away games across 2022/23, that winless start seems unlikely to end here. With the second of those victories arriving in early November, Rotherham travel without an away league victory in 14 matches (D7, L7). Further compounding their misery, Rotherham haven't scored more than two goals in a league away fixture in the second tier for 33 games, although the fact three of their last five away league games ended 0-0 suggests they do have the capacity to keep clean sheets.
Players to watch: Each of Dan Neil’s last three strikes for Sunderland have come on home turf, but interestingly they’ve all come in losing causes. Hakeem Odoffin scored only once in his first 16 appearances last season for Rotherham but comes into this clash with that tally equalled after just two games thanks to his first half strike last weekend.
Hot stat: Sunderland have conceded either side of half-time in their two league fixtures so far this season.