Wolves v Sunderland

Today sees us welcome another potentially tricky side in the form of Sunderland.

We come into the game almost down to our bare bones in the central defence after Christophe Berra picked up five bookings, Jody Craddock and Ronald Zubar are still well off match fitness so we'll have to depend on Steven Mouyokolo and Richard Stearman for the second home game running. With Karl Henry out with knee ligament damage, that element applies for the central midfield too with Dave Edwards and Adlene Guedioura unavailable so if a five-man midfield is selected today, there's not much choice but to field Michael Mancienne behind left-footed schemers David Jones and Nenad Milijas. But with us needing three points badly, will we even play five in the middle?

Resident draw specialists Sunderland come to Molineux with Darren Bent fully fit to give Steve Bruce the chance to pair him and Asamoah Gyan, which will enable the chance for Danny Welbeck to supply more chances for the front-line. Titus Bramble is out so they will fancy their chances a lot more. Sunderland have only once won away from home and that was at Chelsea for those of you who have just been rescued from a remote island. This time last season saw the start of their slump after a bright start, the best form of hope we can cling on to.

In the form our visitors are in, we should be content with a point but we must pick up three points by hook or crook, but against a Steve Bruce team, how rare is that when we only got the better of him twice in 15 games?

'Grobs'

POSSIBLE LINE-UPS

WOLVES (4-5-1): Hahnemann; Foley, Stearman, Mouyokolo, Elokobi; Jarvis, Milijas, Mancienne, Jones, Hunt; Doyle. Subs: Hennessey, van Damme, Ebanks-Blake, Fletcher, Ward, Davis, Bent

SUNDERLAND (4-4-2): Gordon; Onouha, Turner, Ferdinand, Richardson; Welbeck, Henderson, Cattermole, Malbranque; Gyan, Bent. Subs: Mignolet, da Silva, Bardsley, Elmohamady, Riveros, Zenden, Angeleri

ODDS (with William Hill) (view more odds)

WIN: Wolves 13/8; Draw 11/5; Sunderland 17/10


FIRST GOALSCORER: Wolves - Steven Fletcher 6/1, Doyle 13/2, Ebanks-Blake 7/1, Milijas 10/1, Jarvis 12/1, Hunt 14/1, Foley 40/1 Sunderland - Bent 9/2, Gyan 9/2, Welbeck 13/2, Henderson 14/1, Zenden 14/1, Richardson 16/1, Turner 33/1

KEY PLAYER: Asamoah Gyan. Fitted into the team really quickly and started firing the goals, more to come with Bent returning I'd imagine, but hopefully not today.

WEAKEST LINK: Lee C(l)attermole. Three red cards this season. Been a while since his last one.

NOTABLE MUTUAL ALUMNI: Neill Collins, Alex Rae, Jody Craddock, Michael Gray, Don Goodman



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