SUNDERLAND are nailing down their preparations for their League One play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers and Alex Neil has, naturally, been identifying his oppositions strengths ahead of their trip to Wembley.

The Black Cats have faced the Chairboys twice this season and have never come out on the wrong end of the result winning 3-1 in August last year at the Stadium of Light before a thrilling 3-3 draw at Adams Park in January earlier this year.

Sunderland are currently a side bang in form having maintained a 15 match unbeaten run to make it to Wembley while Wycombe, apart from their play-off semi-final second leg defeat to MK Dons which inevitably sealed their place in the final, haven’t lost since the back end of February, a run of form that stretched to 13 games.

It’s a finely poised affair between the two sides but in a winner takes all scenario, the form of both teams could be thrown out the window.

On their way to a 13 match unbeaten run that saw them book a date with Wembley, Neil has been discussing the way Wycombe demonstrate good practice on the pitch.

He said: “They are a tough team to beat. They have got a great habit of being in games all of the time. They don’t need to necessarily play well to win. They are dangerous from the first minute to the last.

“They are not the type of team that gets too caught up in process in how you play. They want to be effective as they possibly can and those types of teams are always dangerous. Sometimes they can lull you into a false sense of doing well when controlling the ball and maybe having a few chances and then the next minute they hit you with a sucker punch.

“We know we are going to have to be focused, we know what is coming our way. Gareth (Ainsworth) and their players have done a great job getting to the final and getting an opportunity of being promoted.

“We know how much they are going to put into it. We’ve just got to match that endeavour, effort, aggression, everything that comes with playing Wycombe and we need to hope that we’ve got enough quality to win.”

Gareth Ainsworth is the second longest serving manager of a club in England as he closes in on a decade in charge of the Chairboys. He sits behind Harrogate Town boss Simon Weaver in the standings.

The 49-year-old has been successful in his stint in charge taking them to the second tier of English football last season before their immediate return to League One.

Neil paid homage to Gareth Ainsworth for the job he has done with the Chairboys over the years. “It’s very rare that you get somebody nowadays that can really imprint themselves on a club” he said.

“You need to earn the right to do that. Gareth has earned that right by making them successful. What happens is there is complete trust their between the fans, between the club and Gareth themselves. Then they basically hand over control to him.

“If you look down history in terms of the big clubs, even some of the clubs now like Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, that trust between every facet of the club is in place and that is certainly what Wycombe have got. That isn’t the norm anymore. It’s an anomaly.

“That’s where they get their strength from. The fact that he will have a bearing on every single facet of the club from what they do from top to bottom.”

As of Monday, Wycombe Wanderers have sold 20,000 tickets for the game at Wembley. Sunderland fans have sold out their allocation of seats which stands at nearly 44,000 fans.