Sunderland vs Gillingham Phil Parkinson vs Steve Evans

Sunderland vs Gillingham match preview

Big game……

This goes without saying, 10 games, (hopefully), to go – all big games now. Gillingham have been on a decent run since the turn of the year, last weeks home defeat to Wimbledon was their first defeat in the 15 league games since they beat us 1-0 in December. 1 loss in 15 games is decent, but…. 8 of them have been draws, we know only too well that draws are a killer. Obviously it’s good not to be losing games, but 4 wins and 4 defeats would ultimately be much more rewarding!

Big Manager……

Fresh on the heels of Pantomime Villain, Joey Barton; it’s Steve Evans on Saturday. Barton says some daft things, but he’s a smart cookie and is doing a great job at Fleetwood. Evans has a decent CV in terms of results in the lower leagues.

Looking at him now, it’s hard to believe he played just shy of 200 games, prior to having to retire through injury aged just 24…..

Evans will be in the officials ear from minute 1 on Saturday, if ever an early goal was what we needed, Saturday is the day? Although not the source of his criminal record Evans was in charge of the Crawley team that won at Phil Parkinson’s Bradford in 2012. A game notable for 5 red cards, a big brawl, and some pretty unpleasant accusations of Evans behaviour towards a female employee of BCFC.

Sunderland v Gillingham match preview — 5 red cards is an impressive amount!

Are they any good…….

Any team managed by Evans will definitely compete in every game they play.

Whilst we weren’t fussed to not progress in the cup, a draw was the last result we wanted. Up here they were woeful 1st half, in the 2nd half they noticeably upped their physicality and ultimately did a bit of a job on us.

There was very little in the games down there, if the linesman had known the rules, we’d have won the league game, despite not playing well.

Man for man we are a better team, hopefully our improved fitness will negate their physicality? I’ll no doubt write something before the weekend, as regards our starting 11, I’ve already alluded to Gooch and Denver looking like they would benefit from a rest – form aside, I’m not sure the physical approach of the Gills will particularly suit either of them?