Sunderland vs Bristol City prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2024-04-05 14:00.
[p]Sunderland are almost out of Championship play-off contention, but they can keep their remote chances alive while severely denting Bristol City’s dreams by leapfrogging them into 12th place with a victory here. They only have themselves to blame for their season fizzling out after changing head coaches in February, only for Mike Dodds to lose five of his seven games in charge since then (W1, D1).[/p]
[p]Dodds blasted his players publicly for an “unacceptable” performance against Blackburn Rovers on Monday in which they lost at home by a four-goal margin (5-1) for the second time this term. The interim boss warned that heads will soon be on the chopping block should there not be improvement, and with the club having already suffered six losing streaks of 2+ league matches this campaign, they’re vulnerable to another poor spell again.[/p]
[p]One of those sequences began with a 1-0 defeat at Bristol City in the reverse H2H, which oddly ended a run of six consecutive H2Hs in which the hosts on the day didn’t win. The Robins were slight underdogs in December as they had come off the back of four league games without victory (D1, L3), and surprise results have been a theme of their Championship season, underlined by a win rate of just 38% for pre-match favourites in their games (W15, D8, L17).[/p]
[p]The West Country outfit sit 11 points outside the top six despite a 1-0 victory at Plymouth Argyle, making a play-off appearance unlikely, but they’re now just seven points away from improving on last term’s tally – a feat which would vindicate November’s appointment of Liam Manning – while three 1-0 wins in their last four games is a sharp improvement for a defence that had conceded in 11 straight Championship matches prior (W2, D2, L7).[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Sunderland could benefit greatly from a goalscoring contribution by Pierre Ekwah, whose three strikes in 2023/24 have all come in home victories. Opposition head coach Manning praised the “terrific character” of Nahki Wells, who recorded his third away goal this season at Plymouth on Monday and equalised late in this corresponding fixture last term (1-1).[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Ten of the last 11 league goals scored or conceded by Bristol City came after half-time. [/p]