Sunderland head into their clash with Crewe Alexandra aiming to build on their 2-1 win at Gillingham on Saturday after they managed to maintain their lead despite going down to ten men.

The victory kept Lee Johnson’s side in touching distance with the teams above them in the League One table. They have games in hand to come against most of those sides in the coming weeks and months.

The Black Cats will have to be aware that they suffered a heavy defeat against Portsmouth ahead of the international break. That means that they can not afford to switch off and fall bellow the standards they have been setting for most of the campaign to date.

A trip to Crewe on Tuesday represents a strong chance for Sunderland to get a winning run going now and try and regain the momentum that they lost following their defeat against Portsmouth.

There were some notable absentees for their trip to Gillingham on Saturday. The fact that they were able to take three points from that game despite that shows the strength in depth that they have within their squad.

Johnson’s side might well have to contend with some issues once again in terms of some of their players’ fitness for their trip to Crewe.

Here we round up the latest team news concerning Sunderland heading into the game.

Sunderland’s attacking options are set to be limited even more for their trip to Crewe with Elliot Embleton facing a suspension following his red card in the 2-1 win at Gillingham.

That means that Johnson is going to have to find a solution to his absence in the attacking third.

There is some potential positive news for the Black Cats though, with Johnson telling the Shields Gazzette that Aiden McGeady has a 50/50 chance of making a return to fitness in time to feature for them against Crewe on Tuesday.

While Lynden Gooch has been described as having a 70/30 chance against featuring for Sunderland at Crewe according to Johnson. That suggests that the Black Cats might have to wait for one more game before they can welcome him back into the fold.

Both Nathan Broadhead and Niall Huggins are going to continue to miss out for Sunderland as they recover from their respective injuries that have kept them side lined in recent weeks.

Leon Dajaku is also continuing to nurse the thigh strain injury he picked up while on international duty with Germany’s under-20s and it is not known at this point whether he will return to the squad against Crewe.

While Frederik Alves might possibly be able to return to action for Sunderland according to Johnson after he missed out of the squad for the trip to Gillingham due to feeling an issue in his glute.