JON McLaughlin knows all about playing at the Pirelli Stadium, he spent three years there before heading north of the border to join Scotland.

This afternoon he will return there between the posts wearing a Sunderland shirt, knowing exactly what it is like to play at the compact ground and how hard Burton Albion make it for opponents.

The Brewers like to play attractive football under Nigel Clough and McLaughlin has kept an eye on them since leaving for Hearts in the summer of 2017.

Relegation from the Championship, along with Sunderland, in May hurt, but McLaughlin is certain that they will still be a test despite a disappointing start to life back in League One.

“In my time at Burton we were a force at home,” said McLaughlin. “We made that a place that was very difficult to come. In the Championship it was a little different but again in the first season teams didn't like going there and it wasn't easy for them.

“They had a good home record and it was difficult away but last season it flipped a bit and they were better away because they didn't have the home pressure to perform.

“You've just got to make sure that you're switched on and that we do everything right ourselves. Whatever team they put out, whatever performance, or whatever mood they're in, we're capable of dealing with that and winning that game. We'll just be focusing on that game and looking to win that game.”

McLaughlin made 133 appearances for Burton after leaving Bradford in 2014 and his performances for them and for Hearts caught the eye of Sunderland manager Jack Ross, who was at St Mirren and Hearts before taking on the Stadium of Light challenge.

He knows Sunderland will be regarded as the favourites again, like they have in every game already this season in the third tier, and that will be right up Burton’s street when they are preparing for the game.

McLaughlin said: “In my time there we always had the underdog label so you could always just go out and perform without a lot of pressure, and the crowd there are very supportive of the team no matter what.

“They've had an up-and-down start to the season but they're always capable of a big result, a shock result. It will be another big test for us.

“Myself and Tom (Flanagan) will want to go there, put on a good show and get a good result. I had some good times there, it's a great club. We want to go there, right these couple of draws and get back to winning ways.”

Sunderland will again have a sold-out allocation of just over 1,000 fans in Derbyshire this afternoon and the efforts made by supporters since relegation has not gone unnoticed by the players, many of which only arrived for League One.

McLaughlin was one of those summer recruits, he said: “It's massive, all the time if you can take a big following away it's fantastic. At a ground like that which doesn't hold that many, the more fans you can have as an away team, it can create a really partisan atmosphere and that's great.

“You could see the following we had at Gillingham and at Wimbledon, a much smaller ground, the fans were far more vocal than theirs and pulled us through. That's been a key factor.

“It will be great again to see a big following go down there and really make it a good atmosphere for us to go and get a good win.”

Burton have only won two of their seven matches since dropping back into League One and both of those were at home, against two relatively strong sides in Doncaster and Wimbledon.