Match Preview: Sunderland and Watford battle it out for the midtable obscurity trophy

It’s time for the final away game of the season, and with another sold-out away end in attendance to back the Lads, you have to think that they owe Sunderland’s most hardcore and loyal supporters a better performance and result this afternoon.

Mike Dodds simply hasn’t used recent games well enough to prepare us for next season, and with nothing to play for but pride you’d think he might fancy trying a few things out this afternoon at Vicarage Road.

I think back to a game against Watford at around the same point in the season, under Sam Allardyce, having already secured our survival in the Premier League. Big Sam thought “fook it” and gave a bunch of untried youngsters a taste of first team action — and it helped to breathe life into what would have otherwise been a relatively dull game of football.

He started Jordan Pickford, chucked in Tommy Robson and Rees Greenwood for their senior debuts, and also brought George Honeyman off the bench — all of them had earned their spots in the side due to their form in the U23s team and it gave us some hope ahead of the summer that we had some talented young boys waiting to break into the team.

I’m not expecting Mike Dodds to be that drastic this afternoon, but you have to wonder why he’s ignoring some of the starlets of our U21s team — namely Harrison Jones and Tommy Watson, who are more than deserving of a place on the bench.

And there are other, more established players that I’d like to see feature today too — Abdoullah Ba, Adil Aouchiche, Romaine Mundle, and Hemir are all likely to still be here in the summer and we could benefit from giving them a chance to further prove their worth. Either that, or help make up some minds about whether they need to go out and get games elsewhere as we build our squad for next season.

Watford are no mugs and they’ve seen a massive improvement in performances and results since former Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley took over as caretaker manager — he was given the job on a permanent basis this week, a decision which seems to have gone down well with their fans and one that will no doubt help to boost morale this afternoon.

The result is secondary to the performance in my view — yes, getting beat would be a kick in the teeth, but if we play well and we also get to see some of the less heralded players in the squad have a chance to do their thing, I won’t complain too much.

If I was a betting man, and I’m not, I’d stick money on this being another bore draw or close 1-0 win either way. Watford have kept a lot of clean sheets recently, like ourselves, and aren’t particularly potent up top. I’m not expecting a classic, put it that way.

That said, I’m praying that Dodds and co spring a surprise today and give us something to cheer about. Lord knows we’ve earned it after sitting and watching throughout this slog of a season.