JACK ROSS has challenged his Sunderland players to “lay down a marker” when they host promotion rivals Peterborough United tonight.

Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Coventry City has left the Black Cats in fourth position in the League One table, two places and four points adrift of a Peterborough side who boast a 100 per cent record from their five away matches so far this term.

Sunderland are unbeaten at the Stadium of Light, but are yet to host a side sitting above them in the table. That changes this evening, and Ross is challenging his players to produce a performance that will reinforce their promotion credentials.

“Peterborough are where they are in the table on merit, and there’s nothing I’ve watched of them that wouldn’t suggest they’re going to continue being around those higher positions through the course of the season,” said Ross, who has been forced into a major reshuffle because of the absence of four of the players that started Saturday’s game at the Ricoh Arena.

“They’ve got a lot of goal threats in the forward areas, so for that reason, it’s important we try to put down a marker in terms of showing where we want to be at. We recognise the challenge of the game, but I think we’ve got a lot of players in that squad who have dealt with big games in their careers.

“If anything, I think this is the type of game they’ll thrive on. They’ll thrive on going up against a team that’s up near the top of the table, and the challenge of them coming here thinking they’re going to win the game. I would expect those big-game players we have to respond to that.”

Every successful season has its pivotal moments, and while it would be stretching things to suggest that tonight’s game will be decisive to either side’s promotion hopes, it could nevertheless prove an important staging post in Sunderland’s recovery.

The opening-day win over Charlton was a significant moment, particularly given the dramatic circumstances in which it was achieved, and scoring four goals at Gillingham was a statement of intent.

Sunderland are yet to see off one of the League One pace-setters though, so if they were to claim a positive result against Peterborough, it could have a major impact in terms of confidence and momentum.

“When you look back on a successful season, there’s always moments or games that stand out as being really significant,” said Ross. “It would be easy to pretend that’s not the case, but on reflection, there’ll always be times that when you look back, they’re really important.

“When I was at St Mirren, we played Dundee United in a game around Christmas time and there was two points between the teams. They missed a penalty in the first half, and we went on to score two goals and win the game. That stretched our lead, and we never really looked back from that.

“When we looked back on it, that penalty save was a really pivotal moment in the season. Obviously, at the time, it doesn’t always feel like that, because you’ve still got so much to do, but there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a big game for us.”

Unfortunately, the game comes at a time when Sunderland are still reeling from the after-effects of their weekend exertions.

Lee Cattermole misses out because of suspension, having picked up his fifth booking of the season against Coventry. Denver Hume, Glenn Loovens and Lynden Gooch are also unavailable after sustaining injuries at the weekend, so Ross will have to decide whether to stick with a five-man defence or revert to a flat back four for the first time since Sunderland lost at Burton.

“None of those that were injured at the weekend will be available,” said Ross. “Lynden, Denver and Glenn will all be out. We’re having them assessed now.

“Lynden will be reasonably short term. He had a similar injury last year and was (out for) nine or ten days, so that’s probably the time frame we’re looking at. Denver is having a scan, and Glenn will have one too. Once they’ve had those, we’ll have a better idea.

“It just shows how quickly things can change. I’d said before the Coventry game, it was the strongest we’d been squad wise, but it flips very quickly. With those injuries and Lee’s suspension, we’re without four players, and then there’s another couple we have slight doubts over as well.”

Ross can at least call on the services of Jon McLaughlin, and having impressed since making a summer move from Hearts, the goalkeeper was yesterday recalled to the Scotland squad for this month’s matches against Israel and Portugal.

“I’m delighted he’s back in the squad,” said Ross. “I think he recognises that Scotland have two very good goalkeepers in Craig Gordon and Allan McGregor, but he’s proven his quality and I thought he was unfortunate not to have been in the last squad.

“His performance levels for us have just carried on from where he was at last season with Hearts. It’s a nice reward for him to be back in the squad, and it’s fully deserved given the way he’s played for us right from the very first game.”

McLaughlin’s call-up increases the likelihood of Sunderland’s home game with Blackpool a week on Saturday being postponed. The Black Cats can request a postponement if they have three or more players away on international duty, and as well as McLaughlin, Bryan Oviedo is likely to be called up by Costa Rica and Tom Flanagan is set to be selected by Northern Ireland.

Sunderland (probable, 5-3-2): McLaughlin; Matthews, Flanagan, Baldwin, Ozturk, Oviedo; Power, McGeouch, Honeyman; Maguire, Maja.