SUNDERLAND new boy Danny Batth is in contention to make his debut this afternoon when Portsmouth make the trip to the Stadium of Light.

The 31-year-old centre half was brought in earlier this week on an 18-month contract with the hope of boosting the Black Cats promotion hopes from League One this season.

While the Black Cats currently sit in the top two, they are without a win in three games and teams below them have games in hand to play.

With defender Bailey Wright struggling with fitness, Batth could be involved at the Stadium of Light this weekend. He comes into the side with plenty of pedigree having won promotion three times in his career and has plenty of appearances with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City and Middlesbrough.

Unsurprisingly, there was interest from elsewhere in Batth but manager Lee Johnson was chuffed with the centre-half’s decision to go to Wearside.

Johnson said: “A lot of people deserve a lot of credit in that, obviously Danny himself.

“He was adamant from the start that this was the club he wanted to be at. He did have interest at Championship level and top clubs in League One but we managed to win the day.

“I think that was a bit of everything. I don’t think we were the highest financial offer for him which I think shows the quality of the man and the fact that he’s bought into the project as much as he has securing himself and his family’s future.

“It’s a really interesting. It’s good to add his attributes and his quality to the group. Like anything, it will have a ripple effect of course on the group and we hope that is a positive ripple effect.

“Somebody who has been there and done it can of course guide everybody else. I’ve done it myself at this level as a player so I think you tend to recognise signals, recognise the signs of stress, the moments to stay the calm, the signs that you’ve got to drive the standards a little bit more.

“We haven’t had a smooth run at it this season and the boys have performed extremely well. I’m of the belief that we can continue to get better with every player that we have returning from fitness, with every recruit that we bring in. It moulds itself more and more to the way we want to play and that particular game model.”

The general fitness of the Sunderland squad has been a bone of contention this season for Johnson who has had to deal with a squad struck by regular injury.

The chances are that Batth has every chance of being involved in today’s game against Pompey due to fitness of Wright and others. The Australian returned for last weekend’s draw with Accrington Stanley but appears to be struggling in training while Corry Evans has been absent for recent games. Long term absentees Luke O’Nien and Nathan Broadhead are still some way off while Aiden McGeady has returned to light training with the squad.

Johnson is hoping to bring some players back into the fold for this weekend’s game but, naturally, he is fearful that players could drop out at any given moment in the build up to the weekend

The Black Cats boss added: “I’ll be honest with you, I’m so scared going into every training session because obviously we are so light at the moment.

“Getting stronger. Obviously Leon Dajaku was back. I thought he did really well considering he had one training session in ten days moving onto the likes of Alex Pritchard that was obviously 50-50 and didn’t quite make it so we’ll have to judge him.

“Bailey Wright came out of it not one hundred per cent. We had Corry Evans out of action against Accrington but we hope to have him back against Portsmouth. It’s like a juggling act at the moment. We’re going to have to be flexible going into that Portsmouth game.”

On the eve of the game, Pompey have moved to sign Coventry City striker Tyler Walker on loan until the end of the season.

Walker is reunited with manager Danny Cowley after prolific spell together at Lincoln City where he scored 16 goals in 34 appearances.

The signing comes following the departure of striker John Marquis who joined the Imps earlier this week.

PREDICTED SUNDERLAND XI: Hoffman; Doyle, Batth, Flanagan; Cirkin, Gooch, Neil, Embleton, Pritchard; O’Brien, Stewart