Simon Grayson will freshen things up at Carlisle United tonight as he looks to make changes to his team, KO 7.45pm.
The second round of the Carabao Cup sees the Black Cats face the Cumbrians, kick-off 7.45pm, for their first competitive meeting at Brunton Park since 1995.
George Honeyman was Sunderland’s hero in the last round, scoring the game’s only goal at Gigg Lane as Grayson rang the changes against Lee Clark’s Bury.
And like at Bury, Grayson is once again set to make changes after selecting the same side for three games running with Wahbi Khazri and Bryan Oviedo expected to feature while Brendan Galloway has been ruled through injury.
Speaking at his pre-Carlisle press conference, Grayson has urged the players who will come into the team to grasp the opportunity with both hands.
"It will be a tough test,” he said.
"They [Carlisle] had a good victory at the weekend, they did ever so well last year, and I've had a couple of games with Keith in recent years in pre-season.
"He's got a good philosophy. It's a local derby as such, if you can call Carlisle versus Sunderland that, it will be a decent crowd, a decent atmosphere and hopefully we will win the game.
"There will be changes because we do need to freshen it up but whoever goes into the team have got to stake a claim for a place at Barnsley [in the league].”
"Hopefully we will give them [the traveling fans] something to cheer about,” he continued.
“We want to get through to the next round and hopefully at 4.15am [on Thursday] we are still in the hat."