Sunderland’s promotion hopes may be out of their hands at the moment, but they still must fight on. The Black Cats face fellow promotion chasers Portsmouth in a must-win game for both clubs. Barnsley currently have the advantage; however, twists and turns are still possible.
Sunderland’s Promotion Hopes Out of Their Hands
Three Games Left Starting With Portsmouth
The Black Cats currently trail second-placed Barnsley by four points. Although Sunderland have a game in hand, they still require the Yorkshire club to slip up in their remaining two matches.
Visiting the Stadium of Light this weekend is another team hoping for a Barnsley slip. Portsmouth travel to Wearside knowing, like Sunderland, that only three points will do if they are to keep their faint hopes of automatic promotion alive.
A large crowd of around 40,000 is expected and Sunderland must do all they can to win. The two have met twice already this season with Pompey coming out on top on both occasions. The Black Cats will be desperate to avenge their Wembley defeat in the EFL trophy final. Victory will keep their hopes alive and, with two games afterwards, there still could be several plot twists
Barnsley Can Still Slip Up
Barnsley, who currently occupy the second automatic promotion place, have two games remaining. The men from Oakwell are in good form, but they know that any slip up could be punished.
They face Blackpool this weekend who themselves are not in bad form. One defeat in their last six games kept the faint chances of a play-off place alive. With those chances now gone, the Seasiders will still want to finish as high as possible.
Barnsley will then travel to Bristol Rovers on the final day of the season. Rovers are not out of the relegation battle just yet. Should they require points come the visit of Barnsley, they could prove very difficult opposition.
McGeady an Example
Sunderland winger Aiden McGeady is one player not willing to give up the fight just yet. Against Accrington Stanley at the beginning of April, the Republic of Ireland international broke his foot. He was missing for just two full games. However, it has emerged that he has not trained and has been taking injections to make sure he is able to play in games.
The Black Cats need everyone to give there all for the remainder of the season. If automatic promotion evades them, they must be ready for the riggers of the play-offs. Sunderland fans will be desperate to gain automatic promotion in any way possible. Their record in play-off finals and at Wembley is not good. However, bad runs come to an end eventually.
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