‘These young players...they have got a serious opportunity right now’

Lee Johnson has urged Sunderland's young players to step up and prove they are capable of earning more senior minutes in the weeks ahead.

Johnson has a host of key senior players currently side lined, with his first-team group desperately short of options in the full-back and central midfield positions in particular.

Johnson again turned to a core of the U23 group in the Papa John' s Trophy first knock out round against Old ham Athletic last night, and says that there is a 'serious opportunity' for those involved, not least because a change of rules in the Carabao Cup means there are two extra squad spaces up for grabs for the quarter-final at Arsenal later this month.

"I think they have to be [in consideration for league minutes]," Johnson said.

"This is what we've got to prepare them for.

"You look at these players and you expect to get five or six first-team games out of them, and that's really good for them because they're also getting their U23 games and some of them will go out on loan.

"At the moment, we're so short at first-team level that we've got to trust them, throw them in.

"But at the same time we have to protect a lot of our playersgoing into Saturday and the run of fixtures that we've got in the league.

"But these young players... they have got a serious opportunity right now.

"We've got Arsenal coming up in the Car abaoC up later this month and you can have 20 in your matchday squad. At the moment we've got about 13 or 14 fit senior players.

"So if I was one of these young players, I would be doing some serious running!

"I want to see how far the club has come.

"They're building trust with me all the time, you saw we brought Will Harris on at Cambridge (United).

"Cie ran Dunn e and Stephen Wear ne have been in the squad, Ellis Taylor as well.”

*Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley has revealed Sunderland and Ipswich Town both had an interest in Millwall defender Mahlon Romeo last summer.

Romeo joined Pompey on a loan deal and has impressed on the south coast.

Cowley said: “He became available right at the end of the window.

"It was too good an opportunity to turn down. I though the was going to Ipswich and there was even Sunderland, but he wanted to stay down south. He became available, it was a great deal for us.”