00:00 The January transfer window has come to a conclusion on Wearside, with three new faces
00:06 in the through the door at the Stadium of Light, hoping to help their new side find
00:11 inspiration on the pitch.
00:14 Sunderland take a trip down the A19 on Sunday to face Michael Carrick's Middlesbrough, who
00:20 have just seen Morgan Rodgers depart for Aston Villa following their League Cup exit away
00:25 at Chelsea.
00:27 Michael Beale spoke on what to expect from them.
00:30 "They've had a long time to stew on that game, haven't they?
00:33 Not playing last weekend, so I'm sure they'll be looking for a response.
00:36 As I say, they're a good team, powerful team, play good football.
00:40 They've got other players other than Rodgers that are obviously good players.
00:43 I don't know where the team is, because they didn't play last week.
00:46 They've got one or two that are back from injury as well.
00:48 So whatever 11 they put out, I think is a really good championship team and it'll be
00:54 a real stone test for us, for sure."
00:57 The fixture will be Beale's second taste of a North East derby in the space of just a
01:01 month following the first Weartine derby in almost eight years back in January.
01:07 That did not go Sunderland's way, so I wanted to know what has been learnt from that experience
01:12 that can be taken into this game.
01:14 "It's really important to the people in this part of the country, our fan base, it's really
01:21 important.
01:22 The North East derby was a sore one, both games have been sore, haven't they?
01:25 So it's important.
01:26 The only way is up in terms of that then, isn't it?
01:28 This weekend in terms of our performance and our energy on the pitch and our commitment
01:32 to the duels.
01:33 Not just our quality with the ball, it's something that our team is known for in terms of some
01:38 of our possession play and our dribbling and our play certainly through the middle of the
01:44 pitch in midfield.
01:45 Everyone knows we're capable of playing good football, but we're capable of winning our
01:48 duels, running hard and tackling.
01:50 The other parts of the game, when the pitches are not so good at this time of year, you
01:55 have to show other qualities as well.
01:57 That's why I was particularly pleased with some parts of last weekend's game, not just
02:02 the play from the front three, because they were involved in all the goals together, so
02:06 I was delighted with them.
02:07 But it was the back four in the midfield behind them I was pleased with as well, so we're
02:11 going to need to bring that this week."
02:13 The reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light saw Borough win 4-0 after Dan Neal was dismissed.
02:19 That will linger fresh in the memory of many on Wearside, and so Beale made clear how his
02:24 players could use that result as motivation in the game at the Riverside.
02:29 "Yeah, each game is different.
02:31 Obviously a new coach and some new players will be involved in this game and we're living
02:35 in a different moment.
02:36 I think it comes down to the penalty boxes as we've seen in other games this year where
02:43 we've been quite ruthless in games and scored goals.
02:46 You might say last weekend was a little bit like that, we took our chances and maybe Stoke
02:50 didn't.
02:51 Maybe in that game it wasn't a fair run of how the game was actually played between the
02:56 boxes but we certainly want to show a better performance this weekend in terms of the final
03:01 outcome."
03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]
