ASTON VILLA vs SUNDERLAND - MATCH PREVIEW

By Ryan Ghee
November 19 2005

Aston Villa will travel to The Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon knowing that anything other than a win will be unacceptable. Both teams are in desperate need of three points as rock-bottom Sunderland have lost four games in a row where as The Villans have lost their last three league games.

Aston Villa team news: Thomas Sorensen, Gavin McCann and Kevin Phillips have all been passed fit and will start the match against their former club. Milan Baros has returned from international duty unscathed so is expected to feature although it may just be as a substitute. David O'Leary may also consider starting Lee Hendrie after the midfielder claimed that he will look for a loan move away from Villa Park if he does not become a first-team regular.

Sunderland team news: Stephen Wright could make his first appearance for three months as the defender has finally recovered from ankle ligament damage. Stephen Elliott and Tommy Miller are also pushing for a return to Mick McCarthy's side but youngster Daryl Murphy will be hoping to retain his place in midfield.

History of this fixture: Aston Villa have played Sunderland 161 times with Villa winning 71 of the meetings, Sunderland winning 51, and 39 ending in a draw. The Villans don't have a great record away to Sunderland as they have only ever won 17 out of 78 games away to the Black Cats. The last time these two teams met was in the 2002/03 season when Sunderland won 1-0 at The Stadium of Light and Villa won the reverse fixture by the same score at Villa Park.