Preston North End boss details Sunderland preparations ahead of Championship clash

Sunderland are next in action against Preston North End at the Stadium of Light following the break. North End currently sit in 15th position with 12 points from their opening 10 games.

Ryan Lowe’s side are struggling to score goals and have so far only netted three times, but have one of the best defensive records in the division, having only conceded on four occasions.

The Black Cats are flying high in fifth position after drawing 2-2 with Watford, a Premier League side last season, at Vicarage Road on Saturday. Preston, however, lost 2-0 at home to Sheffield United.

However, manager Lowe has revealed how he plans to prepare for the game against Sunderland.

He said: "We'll probably show them stuff rather than doing it because there are a lot of lads, five of them, going on internationals.

"There are a couple of them who will be getting injections to make sure that they can see it through to the next internationals because of some of the niggles that they've had.

"There won't be many on the grass but there will be a time to reflect over the next week or 10 days before we get the lads back. We can plan for Sunderland which is going to be another important game for us. We've got to keep doing the right things and keep believing.

"Everything we do on the training pitch is geared up to a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday evening. All we can do now is forget about the game as quickly as we possibly can, we'll debrief it, and then we'll move on to how we're going to get a result against Sunderland.”

Lowe also added: “They might well be ready for it, it's why we freshened it up against Sheffield United. You only have to look at the players who have played all the minutes, Liam Lindsay hasn't missed a minute, towards the back end he's out on his feet.

"We make the changes to freshen things up, not because anyone has been playing bad at all. People can be in better form but it's more that if we've got fresh legs, we’ll use them.”