Two goals within the space of two minutes from the lively Patrick Roberts earned the Black Cats victory in RG2 back in September. And Royals boss Paul Ince is keen to make sure we put in a better performance up in the north-east this weekend.

“There were two elements to that game,” Ince openly explained. “The first one was down to me, solely my fault. The game wasn’t going anywhere and we were playing with a five at the back, so I tried to get a foothold in the game and go to a four at the back. And that is when we conceded our goals. So I take full responsibility for that.

“The second was that I think if we’d won we would have gone top of the table or close to it. And you could sense a nervousness in the players. And I don’t think we really performed on that basis.

“But a lot has happened since that game and we know it’s going to be another tough game for us up there.

“They have a great home support and it is going to be a real challenge. But I want us to perform a lot better than we did at home.

“I watched their game against Fulham on Wednesday night and technically they’ve got a lot of very good players - Roberts, Diallo, Clarke, Gelhardt who has just come in from Leeds. So we can’t get caught watching the ball and not the runners, because they are very good in that final third of the pitch.

“They played an in-form Premier League side in midweek and performed very well. But I’m sure Tony Mowbray will be telling his players that the league is their bread and butter, just like I was telling my players after our cup game at Manchester United. So we’re expecting a tough test.”

“The only way to get to where we need to be, is to get there together!”