Sunderland were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw in their last League One tie against Accrington Stanley and they'll want to get back to winning ways against Portsmouth this weekend.

The Black Cats have now failed to win in any of their last three third tier games - but before that, they stormed to an emphatic 5-0 victory over fellow play-off chasers Sheffield Wednesday.

It goes to show the topsy turvy nature of the division and shows that anyone can get a result against anyone - and Lee Johnson will certainly be hoping that his team can get the better of Pompey at the weekend.

With the side desperate to get another lot of three points as soon as possible, who could be given the nod to start for Sunderland in their next tie against Portsmouth?

There is unlikely to be too much change for Sunderland in this fixture, even though they only managed a draw in their last game. They still looked fairly solid and there will probably be only one player switch for the tie.

That comes on the wing, where new signing Patrick Roberts may be thrown into the mix straight away. Leon Dajaku didn't have his best game in a Black Cats shirt last time out and he could be dropped to the bench in favour of the new signing from Manchester City.

 

 

Ross Stewart didn't score in the last game but he is still his club's main goal threat so should stay in the side with Lynden Gooch and Alex Pritchard just behind him. In midfield, it should look exactly the same as it did against Accrington too.

The defence had a standout game for Sunderland in their last fixture, so they should also remain unchanged. Callum Doyle chipped in with an assist and Dennis Cirkin had more dribbles than anyone else in the match - so both have done more than enough to warrant staying in the team.