Cats can see the Carabao Cup clash with the Tigers as a dress rehearsal for Rovers opener

tarting the season with a League Cup tie should hopefully work well in terms of preparation for the all-important League One kick-off next weekend.

This afternoon’s visit of Hull City in a Carabao Cup game is a match Sunderland will want to win, but can treat as a dress rehearsal for the Bristol Rovers fixture next week when promotion points will be at stake.

Phil Parkinson is on record as saying the midweek Football League Trophy game with Aston Villa’s Under-21s will be an opportunity for younger players so today’s meeting with the Tigers can be a gauge for how things are shaping up.

Sunderland have met Hull just once before in the League Cup.

That came all the way back in 1961-62 which was just the second year of the competition.

In what was reportedly a hard-fought encounter Sunderland came back from a half-time deficit to win 2-1 with goals from George Herd and Harry Hooper, after former Sunderland man John McSeveney had given the visitors an interval lead.

That League Cup tie was one of 43 competitive games between the clubs ahead of today’s meeting.

There have been 38 league encounters and four in the FA Cup, the quarter-final defeat in 2014 – a week after the Wembley defeat to Manchester City in the League (Capital One) Cup – still rankling with many supporters as Gus Poyet fielded a weakened team when another Wembley trip was in the offing.

Two of Sunderland’s 1937 FA Cup final goalscorers – Raich Carter and Eddie Burbanks – as well as 1973 FA Cup winner Micky Horswill have also gone on to play for Hull, Carter as player-manager. Other notable players to represent both clubs include Don Revie, Tony Norman and more recently Jozy Altidore, Seb Larsson and George Honeyman.

In March 1922, Sunderland paid a world record transfer fee to Hull City for defender Michael Gilhooley.

The £5,250 fee didn’t remain the world transfer record for long.

Sunderland broke their own record just a day later!

All these records of games against every club Sunderland have ever played, along with a list of players to play for Sunderland and whichever club, along with all of the record transfer buys and sales are to be found amongst hundreds of other pages in the new official club history called Sunderland : The Absolute Record.

Last Monday was supposed to be the final day you could add your own name – or the name of someone you are buying it for as a Christmas present – to the book, but we have extended that deadline to midnight on this coming Monday, September 7, for the 400 page large format hardback which costs £30.

There can be no further extensions as the book goes to print next Friday.

You can order what will be the most in-depth book ever published on SAFC by going to www.safctheabsoluterecord.co.uk

Sunderland : The Absolute Record.