Under-23 preview | Wolves vs Sunderland

Wolves under-23s are back in league action on Monday afternoon as they invite Sunderland to the West Midlands for a PL2 clash at Aggborough.

James Collins’ side fell to their first defeat in three against Division 2 leaders Leeds United in Kidderminster last week, but soon got back to winning ways in a friendly meeting with West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday.

Despite their loss to Leeds last time out, Wolves maintained their third-place spot in the table, with the side among the play-off places on 26 points. The development side have a game in hand over fourth placed Crystal Palace, who sit on the same amount of points.

Having beaten Wolves 2-1 at the Academy of Light back in early November, Sunderland were flirting with top spot, but since that match, the Black Cats have won just once in the league, and are still searching for their first victory of 2021.

With the game to be played behind closed doors, supporters can still catch all the action live from Kidderminster on Wolves TV.

The match will be streamed online from 1pm on Monday, with the full match stream and commentary available to watch on wolves.co.uk, the Wolves App or the Wolves YouTube channel.

The live Wolves TV match stream can be found here, or click here to watch on YouTube, while supporters can also catch download the Wolves App now on iOS here and on Android here.

WHEN

Monday, 1pm

WHERE

Aggborough Stadium, Kidderminster

LAST THREE

Wolves

0-2 vs Leeds United (H)

2-0 vs Fulham (A)

2-0 vs Crystal Palace (H)

Sunderland

1-1 vs Newcastle United (H)

2-3 vs Aston Villa (H)

0-2 vs Fulham (A)

WHAT THE BOSS THINKS

Head coach James Collins knows that Sunderland will pose a tough test in Kidderminster, despite the visitors’ recent form, and will be aiming to continue what they produced against West Brom last week.

“We’ve got Sunderland next,” Collins said, “but that’s why we put our friendly in against West Brom last Tuesday because we knew we had a ten-day gap between league games.    

“We had a light recovery day on Wednesday and then a four-day build-up to this one, which we know will be another tough game.

“Sunderland are always a very hard team to beat, and we lost up there early on in the season when I thought we had a lot of the ball but didn’t create enough, so it will be a good challenge for us.

“It was nice to get a win in the friendly, but hopefully we can continue that on Monday.”

NEXT FIVE

15/03 Sunderland (H)

22/03 Middlesbrough (A)

02/04 Aston Villa (A)

12/04 Newcastle United (H)

19/04 West Bromwich Albion (H)

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