The Lads head are on the South Coast today to take on in-form Bournemouth in todays early kick-off!
Saturday 28th February 2026
Bournemouth v Sunderland – Premier League
Vitality Stadium – Kick-Off: 12:30
Tickets & Match Coverage
Tickets: Tickets are sold out.
TV/Stream: Full live match coverage is available via TNT Sports.
Radio: Full live match commentary available via BBC Radio Newcastle (not online)
Don’t forget to follow the blow-by-blow account of the game on the Roker Report Twitter feed (@RokerReport) and check out the player ratings after the full-time whistle at www.RokerReport.sbnation.com!
The build-up…
In the build-up to last week’s fixture against Fulham I stated that we were doing something that we hadn’t faced so far this season. This was having to respond to successive losses in the Premier League this season, as well as aiming to bounce back quickly on our home patch after a home defeat, and after losing to Fulham, it leaves us having to bounce back from three successive losses.
If you’ve had a chance to listen to our opposition preview podcast this week, you might have heard Alexander Smith from the Bournemouth Daily Echo talking about their runs of form this season (more talk of that below), but the discussion centred around taking moments.
They lost one in the first nine, then didn’t win in eleven, and now they haven’t lost in seven – but generally the consensus is that it wasn’t really down to performance level in the majority of cases, and I think it’s not unlike what we’re going through.
Was our performance against Fulham that different from how we played against West Ham (in the early stages), Brentford, Wolves, Bournemouth and even the visitors at the Stadium of Light? We haven’t created a lot in the final third in too many games, but we competed, and the big moments fell our way.
There could be an element of getting back to remembering what we do well in today’s early kick-off.
There might be a few away fans chatting with the locals about their respective sides in the hours ahead of today’s fixture, and there will likely be a stark contrast in tone between the optimism of the Bournemouth fan and the Sunderland fan who may well be downbeat after three straight defeats – but only two points separate the two sides.
Yes, they haven’t lost in seven, and we have won four in the last eighteen – but Sunderland could leapfrog the hosts with a win this afternoon. The top six have broken away a bit, and the bottom six are doing their thing, but only six points separate Brentford in 7th and Brighton in 14th.
After finishing 12th and 9th in his first two seasons as Bournemouth manager, Andoni Iraola is potentially on the lookout for bigger and better things. First off, a higher place finish than last season, which would be the highest ever league finish for the club, is within their grasp, and secondly, he is out of contract at the end of the season.
A lot of fans, including myself, thought this might be the year they really struggle after taking in more than £300m in player sales in the summer, but they are riding high yet again. They even felt comfortable enough to sell Semenyo in January, where results have improved since his departure to Citeh, which can only raise the stock of Iraola.
The betting…
The bookies have the Lads at 3/1 to win the game, while Bournemouth are priced at 4/5, and the draw is 13/5.
Head to head… at Bournemouth
(All competitions)
- Sunderland wins: 4
- Draws: 0
- Bournemouth wins: 1
- Sunderland goals: 14
- Bournemouthgoals: 11
Last time we met… at the Vitality Stadium
Saturday 5th November 2016
Premier League
Bournemouth 1-2 Sunderland
[Gosling 11’ – Anichebe 33’, Defoe (pen) 74’ (Pienaar sent-off 59’)]
Sunderland: Pickford, Jones, Kone, Djilibodji, van Aanholt, McNair (Denayer), Ndong, Watmore (Love), Pienaar, Defoe (Gooch) Anichebe Substitutes not used: Mika, Manquillo, Khazri, Januzaj
Bournemouth: Boruc, Smith, Daniels, Gosling, Francis, Cook, Stanisals (Fraser), Arter (Mousset), King, Wilshere, Ibe (Afobe) Substitutes not used: Federici, Ake, Mings, Pugh
Attendance: 11,084
Prediction…
Bournemouth 0-0 Sunderland
I have a feeling we’ll remember what we’re good at today – which is being organised. Combine that with the fact that no side has drawn more games in the Premier League than Bournemouth today, and only three sides have shared the spoils more times than ourselves, I’m going for a goalless draw.
Category: General Sports
