ARKINSON: PLAY ON THE RONT FOOT’

Phil Parkinson has urged his players to maintain a ‘frontfoot mentality’ at Shrewsbury Town on Saturday afternoon.

The Black Cats bounced back from a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Wycombe Wanderers in Parkinson’s first game in charge with a convincing 5-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday night.

It leaves Parkinson with a dilemma, eager to build on the encouraging performances in that game, but equally keen to ensure he has a starting XI fresh enough to ‘play like the home team’.

“When the games come thick and fast, there's always a part of you that thinks, do we freshen the team up? Equally, it's good for me to get to look at different situations as well,” Parkinson said.

“But we've got a lot of games coming up to that, so it's a two-fold situation really.

“We want to pick a team we feel can play in the manner we did on Tuesday night.

“We want to go to Shrewsbury and play like the home team.

“That's important, that we maintain that front-foot mentality that we played with.

“To do that, we need a team which is ready to run, press the ball in the right areas, play with real forward momentum.

“We'll pick a team that we think is able to do that.”

Parkinson will be forced into at least one change, with Lynden Gooch set to miss out due to an ankle problem.

Aiden McGeady seems certain to take his place after serving a one-game suspension.

Parkinson is expecting a performance from the winger, who he says will know he has to be at his best to keep his place in the team following Tuesday night’s impressive showing from his teammates.

“Aiden will have watched the game the other night, seen the performance and known that he's going to have to be at his very best if selected,” Parkinson said.

“That's the same for every player.

“He's got immense talent, he can produce moments to win you football games.

“I've enjoyed working with him so far. He's trained well and he's chomping at the bit.”

*Sunderland midfielder Ethan Robson has picked up another niggling injury – but Grimsby Town are hopeful the loanee could return to action this weekend.

The 23-year-old is on a half-season loan with the Mariners – but he has missed their last two outings with a minor knock.