Steve Howey has exclusively told Football League World that that Sunderland will need 'a bit of a shake-up' if they were to secure promotion to the Championship.

The Black Cats are potentially three matches away from going up after securing a spot in the League One play-offs this term.

Lee Johnson's side have enjoyed an excellent second half of the season after moving from a mid-table position into promotion contention, but results over the last few weeks have put something of a dampener on things around the Stadium Of Light.

With a double-header against Lincoln City coming up, Sunderland aren't exactly in the best form after winning just one of their last eight matches in the league - a run which saw them drop out of automatic promotion contention and into a final standing of fourth in the table.

Discussing the club's fortunes Howey believes that the club are perhaps too reliant on a handful of players and will no doubt need wholesale improvements if they were to be playing in the Championship next term.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Howey said: "They keep relying on Aiden McGeady but you could talk about Charlie Wyke and one or two others.

"They've just got to try and regain the form that they had prior to, well, a bit of a meltdown really.

"They've got players that could that could get them into the Championship, but if they did get promoted there would have to be quite a quite a bit of a shake-up because they'd just come straight back down."