Injury Time

Injury Time:

Andrew Cole will have to wait for his Sunderland debut.The former Manchester United striker has a calf injury and will not feature against Reading at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.Cole, 36, got the injury while playing for the Reserves at Everton last week. He had hoped to play against the Royals.Roy Keane, Sunderland's manager, said: "Coley will be out for the next few games."Keane faces mounting injury problems as he starts to think about picking his team to play Reading.Cole (calf), Dean Whitehead (knee), Carlos Edwards (hamstring), Stanislav Varga (knee) and Kieran Richardson (back) are out, while Nyron Nosworthy (knee), Danny Collins (ankle), Kenwyne Jones (calf), Graham Kavanagh (thigh) and Russell Anderson (ankle) are doubts.

Varga faces an operation.Keane said: "Big Stan is having an operation and could be out for two or three months depending on what they find when they go in [to his knee].
"The Sunderland manager will be glad to welcome back today the club's trio of players who have been away on international duty for the last 10 days.Craig Gordon (Scotland) and Paul McShane (Ireland) played in Euro 2008 qualifiers last night while Daryl Murphy (Ireland) was an unused substitute.Keane added: "We're down to the bare numbers on the training pitch. We had three away on [international] duty and a few injured."We have to try to focus on the lads who are fit ... and there's six of them! We're having plenty of three-v-threes out on the training pitch."We've picked up some serious injuries to important players and that's been a blow but we just get on with it, we'll be ready for Saturday."

North East Footballers

North East Footballers :

SUNDERLAND'S Nyron Nosworthy and Dean Whitehead have been named joint winners of the north east football writers' player of the year award.They are the first joint winners since Newcastle United's Neil McDonald and David McCreery in 1987.Nyron and Dean won the award ahead of Mark Viduka - then at Middlesbrough, now at Newcastle - and Magpies defender Steven Taylor.Nosworthy said: "It really is an honour.

I know some top, top players have won this in the past, and it's a very prestigious award. "We enjoyed a fantastic season last year, and I was lucky to have played my part. I was just happy to be involved. "But to be recognised with this, along with Deano, makes me very proud."Sunderland captain Dean Whitehead said: "It was some season last year, but I've always said it felt different to the previous promotion, more of an achievement after the slow start – and hopefully it will be more of a permanent promotion this time around.

"It was a huge team effort, everyone played their part – including people behind the scenes, the coaches and physios etc – so I think this award for me and Nuggsy represents our achievement overall, as a team. "It is still very nice to win such a highly-regarded award from the north east football writers though, so that's the icing on the cake."

Gordon

Gordon stay postive:

craig gordon is asking fans to stay postive despite sunderland losing thier last three games. Roy keanes side takes on fellow strugglers fulham at the staduim of light on satruday looking to win three match needed points.

gordon said " we should have beaten west ham but thats gone now, we need to look forward ". " we've done fairly well at home and we need to continue. its a bit early to call the fulham a six pointer but its a big game, we need to win" .

" we fell that we're not far away from playing some reasonable and we need to move on and climb this league". Gordon is encouraged by sunderland performance at west ham on sunday , a game they lost 3-1.

he said " you never like losing games but we can take something from the way we played, we created alot of chances.

The Players

The Goalkeepers; Craig Gordon, Darren Ward, Trevor Carson, Marton Fulop.

The Defenders; Greg Halford, Ian Harte, Nyron Nosworthy, Paul McShane, Danny Higginbotham, Danny Collins, Russell Anderson, Stanislav Varga, Peter Hartley, Gavin Donolhue.

The Midfielders; Dickson Etuhu, Carlos Edwards, Dean Whithead, Kieran Richardson, Liam Miller, Grant Leadbitter, Dwight Yorke, Graham Kavanagh, Jake Richardson, Ross Wallace, Billy Dennehy, Robbie Weir, Jamie Chandler.

The Strikers; Anthony Stokes, Daryl Murphy, Michael Chopra, Kenwyne Jones, Andrew Cole, Roy O'Donovan, David Connolly, David Dowson

Halford is hopeful

Greg Halford is hopeing to capitalise on McShane's ban by getting a chance in the sunderland Squad.
The full back, a £3m signing from Reading. Greg has hardly played this seasion, playying in 1 of there last 5 games.
This could mean a retrun in the starting 11 "if i am giving a chance I have got to grab it will, it could be my last chance"
"I lacked a bit of confidence when i came here because of my experiance at Reading but that is in the past, i feel i am begging to find my form".

A question time of sport

The SAFC Chairman Niall Quinn will have his sporting Knowledge put to the test when captains a team once more in a Foundation charity question of Sport evening. Following the success of last years event, the football clubs official charity is pleased to announce the return of the unique sports quiz this November.

Carlos Edwards plans a comeback

The Sunderland winger Carlos Edwards is still around a month from recovering fully, from his hamstring injury because the healing process is taking longer than expected.

Boss Roy Keane said; "We're still looking at another 3 to 4 weeks out. We're doing everything we can: its just one of those thing what can be complicated".

"Carlos has seen a specialist. The good news is that he can keep doing the recovery work that hes doing, we just have to be patient.

Its posible he came back to quickly, but this time were going to be carfull. Edwards last played for Sunderland in their Premier League game at Birmingham on the 15th of August".

Roy's piont of view

Roy Keane said its tine for Sunderlandto turn good performances into points.

Sunderland have made a decent offering in thier last two games but have failed to add points

We face West Ham away next week, and Keane knows his side needs to start picking up points. "You should belive you can get somthing for every League game".

Sunderland have played 3 of the top 4 teams in the league so we have done the difficult.

"It would have been nice to get somying out of the Arsenal game, however it was great match and we went close". "There were plenty of postives- we played relatively well away from home but we got no points and we conceded one or two poor goals". Now Sunderland face the challange of move on and focusing on the games ahead because it important we sart winning