Steve Bruce

By The Black Cats
November 27 2009

Sunderland travel down to Wigan in the North West for a Barclay's Permier League Clash with Roberto Martinez side at the DW Stadium. Wigan are expected to put up a tough performance after being embarassed by Spurs - losing by 9 goals to 1 at White Hart Lane on Sunday

It will be a game which sees former Wigan Manager Steve bruce return to his old stamping ground, which I'm sure he will relish - even more so since he was blamed for the defeat by Dave 'Always in the press' Whelan.

Darren Bent was Bruce's main injury worry, especially with Kenwyne Jones missing through suspension, but scans on Bent's hamstring have revealed that he had just suffered a sever bout of cramp - hardly surprising considering the amount of grass he covered as he worked non stop in the home win vs Arsenal last week.

A former Wigan player, now on Sunderland's books, would love to be playing, and I'm sure all of us Sunderland fans would love him to be playing too - that is Lee Cattermole - is still out injured but Bruce is hopeful that he will return to action before christmas.

Sunderland left back, George McCartney has said, "This year we`ve beaten the top teams and we`re going into the Wigan game thinking it`s one of the easier matches. It`s certainly a game we should win." - hopefully that comment won't come back to hurt us.

In the two side's previous games Sunderland beat Arsenal 1-0 at home, while Wigan were thrashed 9-1 away to Spurs - I know who my money will be on this weekend - even though I expect Wigan to come back with a strong performance following that defeat.