JACK ROSS insists Sunderland have not given up on replacing leaders Luton Town at the top of League One – and does not think anything should be taken for granted in the promotion race.

The Black Cats miss the next two weekends of league football because of international call-ups and their involvement in the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley, so the top two have an opportunity to increase their lead.

Both Luton and Barnsley will have played two more games by the time Sunderland head to Accrington on April 2, so the gap to the automatic spots could be even greater by the time that comes around.

Barnsley will look to make it an eight-point margin by beating Walsall and Coventry, while Luton will make it a whopping 13 points if they can defeat Doncaster and Bristol Rovers.

Both the Hatters and the Tykes have longer unbeaten runs than Sunderland, dating back to October and December 8 respectively, but both face similar fortnights by playing a promotion-chasing side and a relegation-threatened one.

Sunderland manager Ross will be keeping an eye on the results while his players gear up for the trip to Wembley on March 31.

And even though he has been impressed by the consistency of results that both Luton and Barnsley have achieved, he does not feel that guarantees routine results.

Ross, after Luton drew with Gillingham last weekend, said: “I’ve never really discounted it (catching Luton) probably because I’ve got to understand how difficult this league is – every game’s so hard.

“I know people naturally get caught up in who do they play next and after that, and think ‘They’ll win this, they’ll win that.’

“I know how tough Gillingham at home is – we found that. I don’t know who they play next but it’ll be tough. Barnsley have got Walsall next – tough.

“The nature of this league is that almost everyone is fighting for something. I probably just always believed that we could reach a points total which will give us a good chance of success and we’re still on course for that.”

Ideally Sunderland will follow up winning at Wembley in front of an 80,000 crowd by securing promotion automatically in May.

And because of the games in hand that Sunderland will have, if they win them all and better Barnsley’s total from there on in, then at least second spot will be attained.

Once they are clear on what division they will be playing in next season they will start to follow up interest in transfer targets.

They have again been linked with prolific Ayr United striker Lawrence Shankland.

It has emerged Shankland has rejected a move to play in Europe, which has strengthened speculation north of the border that he could be set to join Ross at the Stadium of light.