Football News

Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers lock horns at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night and the pressure will be on the hosts to grab a win to boost their escape from relegation.

Steve Bruce's Black Cats have dropped to 15th position after a terrible sequence of results in the last few months.

Since their fine 1-0 home success over Arsenal on November 21, they have fell to seven defeats and picked up seven draws in 14 league outings and they are bordering on the desperate to pick up three points.

Their position towards the foot of the table is now providing cause for concern as they sit just three points above Hull City, who occupy the third and final relegation place.

Owen Coyle's resurgent Trotters have leapt above Sunderland after much-needed back-to-back victories over Wolverhampton Wanderers on February 27 and West Ham United on the weekend.

Prior to these successes, they had won just one in nine as they loitered in and around the drop zone and Bruce will look at their opponents' mini-revival for inspiration.

A triumph for the north east side would propel them back above Bolton and into 13th place but more importantly, they would move six points away from the bottom three.

The hosts may welcome back injured duo Jordan Henderson (ankle) and Andy Reid (hamstring) although both are rated as doubtful for the clash.

Bolton, on the other hand, have a number of injury concerns. America international Stuart Holden, who broke his leg in his country's friendly against Netherlands last week, will be missing for up to six weeks.

Knee victims Joey O'Brien and Sean Davis will not return this term and Chris Basham could feature at the end of April.

Gary Cahill could make a return at the end of the month after a blood clot in his arm, but Gavin McCann (ankle) is still a month away from a return.

Mark Davies has not received a return date following his ankle problem and Tamir Cohen, who was sent off at West Ham on Saturday, misses out through suspension.

Last season's fixture threw up a 4-1 away-day win for Bolton and they would be delighted with a similar outcome this time.

Although Djibril Cisse opened the scoring for the hosts, Bolton, under Gary Megson, hit back thanks to first-half goals from Matt Taylor, Cahill and Johan Elmander.

It was Sweden international Elmander who fired in his second after the re-start to seal a fine win and Bruce will be striving to turn the tables on Tuesday.