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Sunderland were finally knocked off the top of the league by Manchester United last week and they'll be hoping to regain their spot at the head of the division, should results go their way.
Fourth-placed Reading take on table-toppers United this evening and should they trip up, and Sunderland win, Andy Welsh's side will regain first place in the league.
Match Details
Kick Off: 7pm
Entry Price: £3 for adults, £1 for concessions. Season card holders can attend free of charge.
Stand: Turnstiles will be open at the west stand only.
Betting
It seems the only bookmaker offering online betting on this match is Skybet, where you can get 1/2 for a Sunderland win tonight, whilst Middlesbrough are priced at 4/1. A draw is 3/1.
Under 2.5 goals is 6/4, whilst over 2.5 goals is 1/2.
You can get 4/7 for both teams to score, which seems like decent value when combined with a Sunderland win.
You can get a full list of potential markets here.
Preview
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Middlesbrough's first team are away at Leeds this evening, which may well impact the team that they select, whilst Sunderland are headed to Dubai for warm weather training this week and as a result several first-teamers may not be available for selection for tonight's game.
Sunderland's last outing against PSV Eindhoven was an unsuccessful one, and the hope is that they can bounce back with a morale-boosting win over tenth-placed Middlesbrough having not won any of their last three games.
George Honeyman may have taken up a place on the bench for the first team against Manchester United at the Stadium of Light but he's expected to feature this evening having only came off the bench in the Eindhoven game.
Max Stryjek is likely to play in goal, whilst Tom Robson, Thomas Beadling, George Brady and Josh Robson should form the back four.
Ethan Robson may well come into contention in midfield, whilst Mikael Mandron is likely to come in for Andrew Nelson up front.
Last Time Out
It was a fairly disappointing evening for Sunderland when Dutch side PSV Eindhoven came into town, losing 1-0 in the Quarter Finals of the Barclays Premier League International Cup without really mustering up any semblance of a fight.
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With the experience of Duncan Watmore, Charis Mavrias and Mikael Mandron not available to be called upon youngsters Rees Greenwood, Dan Wright and Andrew Nelson headed up the attack, but Sunderland failed to properly test their opposition and were punished in the second half when a goal from Clint Leemans gave PSV the lead.
George Honeyman was introduced from the bench late in the game and was easily Sunderland's most creative player but unfortunately it wasn't enough as Sunderland were eliminated from the competition. PSV will take on Chelsea in the semi-finals.
