Team News

Ethan Robson is ineligible to play against his parent club. Max Wright will have to sit this one out after limping out of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mansfield Town. Max is struggling with a thigh injury.

Ludvig Öhman will be missing once again. 

Sunderland manager Jack Ross has intimated that Tuesday’s trophy tie against Town is not at the top of his priorities and he may ring the changes at the Stadium of Light.  

Town boss Michael Jolley made 10 changes from the side that had won at Walsall in the league ahead of last month’s Leasing.com tie with Scunthorpe United, with youngsters Joe Starbuck, Brandon McPherson, Cameron Painter, Joey Hope, Luis Adlard and Evan Khouri being drafted into the squad.  

Head to Head

Town and Sunderland have faced each other on 53 occasions, with us coming out on top in just 10 of those contests.

The two teams have drawn on 13 occasions and Sunderland have 31 victories to their name in clashes between the two sides. The last time the two sides met was in the same competition in 2017, JJ Hooper scored a screamer that day in a 1-1 draw at Blundell Park.  

Town’s last victory against The Black Cats came in 1995 when two goals from Steve Livingstone and a Jamie Forrester goal gave Town a 3-1 victory at Blundell Park.

Interesting fact

Pat Glover scored has scored five times against them, and he scored 10 times in four consecutive matches in 35-37

Match Coverage:

As usual, match updates will be provided by the club’s official twitter account (@OfficialGTFC). We will keep you up to date with the action to ensure you don’t miss a kick – delivering a match report shortly after the final whistle with post-match reaction from Town boss, Michael Jolley. 

This game will be shown live in the UK on iFollow Mariners. There will be no audio commentary for this game. 

Betting Odds

At the time of writing, the Mariners are 5/1 to grab a full-time victory at the Stadium of Light.

Man in the Middle:

Stephen Martin will be the referee for Tuesday’s Trophy tie against Jack Ross’s men.

Martin’s father and grandfather were both EFL officials and encouraged him to take up the whistle in 2002.

His rapid rise saw him appointed to the EFL assistant referee list in 2008 and to the National League referee list in the same year.

After four years he became an EFL referee and has since taken charge of more than 300 games in all competitions.

This will only be Mr Martin’s second Town game, with the first being our Blue Square Premier League clash at Bath back in the 2011/ 2012 season.

Key Man for The Black Cats – Chris Maguire 

Sunderland forward Chris Maguire has certainly been in good form this season for Jack Ross’ men. 

The striker has netted four goals this season and joint-top goalscorer for the Black Cats, with an impressive hat-trick coming against AFC Wimbledon being a highlight of the campaign so far. 

With the Scottish international aided by the midfield playmaking prowess of Aiden McGeady, who also has four goals to his name.