After a close 1-0 defeat to Stoke City at Carrow Road, Norwich City Under-23s travel to the Academy of Light as they take on Sunderland this Friday (1pm KO).
In our match preview, we’ll be taking a look at the Black Cats season so far, and looking back on what U23s midfielder Liam Gibbs had to say after their last outing.
The opposition
After edging past Middlesbrough to take the final play-off spot of Premier League 2 Division 2, Sunderland faced third-place Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
After a tight 90 minutes and neither team able to find the decisive goal, the game went straight to a penalty shootout to decide who will be going to the play-off final, the Eagles winning 5-3.
Spending another season in Division 2, City and the Black Cats have got off to similar starts in their opening two fixtures, Sunderland taking a 4-3 loss to Fulham before beating league newcomers Burnley 3-2.
Meanwhile, the Canaries will be disappointed to have taken just three points from their games so far, after a 3-0 victory over Southampton and a 1-0 loss to Stoke that left them feeling hard done by.
The last time the sides faced each other was back in April, Sunderland leaving the Lotus Training Centre with all three points as a result of their 3-2 win.
Liam Gibbs: "There are a lot of positives"
Following their defeat to Stoke at Carrow Road last week, summer signing and midfielder Liam Gibbs says there were plenty of positives to take from their performance going into this week's fixture against Sunderland.
"In the first half we were really dominant, had a lot of chances, kept the ball in their half and didn’t really let them play so it was a good start to the game, then they changed shape and caused us a few problems so our press wasn’t as effective, but there are a lot of positives to take into the rest of the season.
“If we’d have been more patient, maybe we could have created more chances but we’re still learning and we’ll take that into the next game.
“At times, we definitely got the ball into the midfield and used our front three quite well at times. It still could have been better and we’ll look to improve on that in games to come."
You can see what else Gibbs had to say after last week's loss here.
You can follow all the action of Friday’s fixture through our dedicated Academy Twitter, where live updates will be issued with a full match report at the final whistle.