Coventry City boss Mark Robins is looking forward to coming up against some familiar faces when his side face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light tomorrow.

Lee Burge, Jordan Willis and Marc McNulty are all at the Black Cats now and they could all be in Phil Parkinson's XI come 3pm on Saturday.

And, Robins told the Sunderland Echo that it will be good to see the trio again and suggested the Sky Blues will look to take advantage of the fact that they know all about the players.

"It helps in the knowledge that you’ve worked with the players before so you do know them but ultimately you pay attention to their strengths and you also pay attention to weaknesses and potential weaknesses and you’ve got to try and exploit that and they’ll be doing exactly the same."

The Sky Blues have enjoyed a superb season so far under Robins and are currently third in League One, just four points behind the automatic promotion places. Meanwhile, the hosts are ninth but can move to within a point of Coventry if they pick up three points tomorrow.

This fixture was a classic last season, with the visitors winning a 5-4 thriller when the pair met back in April.

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The verdict

This just highlights how well Coventry are doing right now that they have lost three players to a direct rival and they are still ahead of them in the league.

As Robins says, he knows all about Burge, Willis and McNulty and it will be down to him and the coaching team to set the Sky Blues up to exploit any weaknesses they, and Sunderland, have.

Despite that, the trio will be eager to impress and it's obviously going to be a major challenge to come away from the north-east with a win.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.