Ricky Sbragia

By The Black Cats
April 3 2009

The Sunderland Manager, Ricky Sbragia, has said he would happily settle for a repeat of last season - referring to the way in which the Black Cats secured their Barclays Premier League status with two games to spare.

The Black Cats, one of nine teams including local rivals Newcastle and Middlesbrough embroiled in the battle to stay up, go to West Ham on Saturday looking for a win that would see them take a huge step towards survival.

Sunderland are already 5 points better off this season when compared to the same stage of last season, but unfortunately the league is a lot tighter this year round.

After the trip to Upton Park on saturday, Sunderland face Manchester United and Hull at home before going to West Brom, in a must win game.

"We know it's going to be tight," said the boss. "I've said that since I took over, the teams at the bottom keep beating each other.

"I'd love it if we were home and dry with a couple of games to spare, I wouldn't want to go into our final game with Chelsea needing something.

"It starts to get nervy down there and the quicker we get a win the better. We need something at West Ham."

Kieran Richardson, meanwhile, is looking forward to returning to Sunderland's side against the Hammers after serving his 2 match suspension for reaching 10 yellow cards.

Richardson said: "I've been frustrated and I can't want to be back. My match fitness might be lacking but we've had a few games behind closed doors so I will be OK.

"To pick up 10 bookings was flabbergasting but it's gone now, I'm back to scratch."