Sunderland take on Leeds United at Elland Road in the Championship on Tuesday night.
Mike Dodds and his Sunderland side head to Yorkshire to face title-hopefuls Leeds United in the Championship on Tuesday.
Ahead of this one, the Black Cats sit in 13th after a 0-0 draw vs Bristol City, with Leeds in 3rd after defeat at Coventry City last time out.
Sunderland and Leeds often feels like a momentous occasion; a clash between two giants of the game and of the Football League.
And it’s a battle between two teams that goes way back, with the first recorded meeting dating back 100 years to 1924.
When was the last time Sunderland won at Leeds United
Sunderland last beat Leeds United at Elland Road in 2006.
That game ended in a 3-0 win for Sunderland near the start of the 2006/07 Championship campaign, with the Black Cats under Roy Keane then winning the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland and Leeds have only met four times since that season, with both teams going up and down the visions in England, experiencing their own degrees of hard ache.
But that 2006 win at Elland Road remains the last time Sunderland won on Leeds turf.
What Roy Keane said after Leeds United 0-3 Sunderland will shock supporters
Sunderland went on to win the Championship title in the 2006/07 season.
Keane guided the Black Cats to promotion to the Premier League, doing so in style with just one league defeat after New Year.
Sunderland finished two points ahead of Birmingham City in 2nd and four ahead of Derby County in 4th, in a season that started with four straight defeats for the Black Cats.
But after the win against Leeds, Keane made no mistake about his side’s promotion hopes and expectations that season, telling BBC:
“It’s the best thing in the world when you win football games. But for me looking at the bigger picture, we’ll get ready for the next one.
“It’s fantastic and if the fans are going home happy we’ve done something right. If the fans are happy I’m happy.
“I was expecting to come to Leeds and win, I’m not in a state of shock or surprise. We’ve got all the same aims.”
That season, Leeds finished in last place and were relegated to League One.
Since then, Keane has been linked with a return to Sunderland.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has huge pressure at Sunderland
Sunderland fans are among the most vocal; when the going’s good, it’s great, but when the going’s bad, then it’s certainly bad.
And that’s evident now with the Black Cats sitting in mid-table of the Championship, in their second season back in the Championship after four years in League One, but with a huge sense of under-achievement.
Sunderland are a team who arguably belong in the Premier League given their history and fan base, and the current infrastructure of the club too.
There’s an eagerness to get back there and so anything other than promotion feels like a backwards step for the club and owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
But going into this game against Leeds who themselves are fighting for automatic promotion, the Black Cats are the massive underdogs.
Less than 20 years ago, Keane and Sunderland went to Elland Road; not only expecting a win, but getting one.
Times have certainly changed.
A lot has happened in a very short space of time and that’s the shocking thing here; Sunderland have had plenty of interest and investment since 2006, but they’re far from the team that lifted the Championship title back in 2006/07.
But a big summer transfer window could help get the club back on track and back in the Premier League.