Sunderland welcome Mansfield Town to the Stadium of Light in looking to address their recent run of three consecutive defeats with a positive result and performance in the FA Cup.

A growing injury list means that Lee Johnson will not be able to rest and rotate as much as he would have liked against a Stags side struggling towards the bottom end of League Two under Nigel Clough.

Johnson has been known for inconsistent good and bad streaks in his time at Bristol City and even last season with the Black Cats.

We are predicting just five alterations from the side that was comprehensively beaten by Sheffield Wednesday in midweek.

Frederik Alves has had very limited opportunities to impress since joining on loan from West Ham United and could step in to give Tom Flanagan a well earned rest. Bailey Wright, a former captain of the side, has seen his game time slashed at the start of this season with Manchester City loanee Callum Doyle performing well at the heart of defence.

 

 

Lee Burge may come in to replace Ron-Thorben Hoffmann between the sticks with a strong defensive display just the tonic to breathe some much needed confidence back into the side.

The visit of the Stags is a potential lose-lose situation for Johnson, if the Black Cats only win narrowly then it is hard to justify a strong performance, but it is important to stop the rot, if they can Johnson may look back on this fixture as a game where they were able to start turning their fortunes around.