Sunderland 3 Stoke 1: Highlights after Mason Burstow, Abdoullah Ba and Pierre Ekwah goals

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Sunderland's Championship match against Stoke.

The Black Cats start the day just three points outside the play-off places, yet last week's 1-0 defeat against Stoke significantly increased the pressure on head coach Michael Beale.

We'll have all of the build-up ahead of today's match, as well as in-game analysis and post-match reaction.

Refresh the page for live updates throughout the day.

We'll start with the Sunderland team news.

Beale confirmed in this week's press conference that Patrick Roberts will miss the side's next two matches (against Stoke and Middlesbrough) with a calf injury.

Bradley Dack remains sidelined with a hamstring issue, while Aji Alese is set to be sidelined for the next month after picking up an injury in training.

Dennis Cirkin is also still out with a hamstring issue, which required surgery and will keep the defender sidelined for the next few months.

Corry Evans is still recovering from an ACL injury, while Elliot Embleton is recovering from a thigh issue he suffered while on loan at Derby.

Niall Huggins is set to miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on a knee injury.

After last week's 1-0 defeat against Hull, a section of the Sunderland fans were chanting: ' you're getting sacked in the morning' towards Beale.

Here's what the Sunderland boss had to say about last week's reaction:

"If we win that game I think we will go back to just outside the play-offs on goal difference. It's a huge crisis at this football club, youngest team in the league, we haven't got the biggest budget.

"We're sat three points off the play-offs with a home game coming up. I'm a little bit perplexed and bemused by the outside thing. "The change was made by the club. We'd won two in nine before the change was made. In the next nine league games the team has won four.

"For me there is an ongoing issue that we are not scoring enough goals. We need to try and rectify that and need all the support from the outside."

Stoke start the day 19th in the table and are eight points behind Sunderland.

The Potters did go five league games (three wins and two draws) unbeaten following the appointment of Steven Schumacher last month, but were then beaten 2-1 by Birmingham last weekend.

Former Sunderland player Lynden Gooch returned from an injury, coming off the bench, against Birmingham last week.

Here's what Schumacher had to say when asked about the recent unrest at Sunderland.

"We have to forget that because what we've got to look at is Sunderland are still only three points outside the playoffs, so just a really good team. They have lost their last few games, but one of them was against Newcastle, who are a top Premier League team.

"We won't take too much of that into consideration. We just need to figure out what's the best way to try and stop them, what's the best game plan to put together, what's going to give us a chance to win the game and if we can do that then great. As I say, it's never an easy game going to the Stadium of Light."

Here are our predicted line-ups for today's match:

Predicted Sunderland XI: Patterson, Pembele, Ballard, O'Nien, Hume, Ekwah, Neil, Ba, Pritchard, Clarke, Bellingham

Predicted Stoke XI: Iversen, Hoever, McNally, Rose, Thompson, Pearson, Burger, Baker, Jun-Ho, Campbell, Vidigal

Sunderland's sporting director Kristjaan Speakman said on Thursday that he remains hopeful the club will strengthen in the final week of the transfer window.

Speakman confirmed numerous bids are currently on the table, with the Black Cats looking to sign another striker and central midfielder.

Sunderland are also exploring their options at full-back, following injuries to Huggins, Cirkin and Alese. Barnsley midfielder Callum Styles, who can also play as a left wing-back has been on the club's radar, yet the Echo understands no deal is close at this stage.

Bournemouth striker Kieffer Moore was attracting interest from several Championship clubs, including Sunderland, but now looks set to stay at the Vitality Stadium this month.