There is no hiding away from the fact that Sunderland are in the midst of a poor run of form and they will be hoping to turn that around when they travel to Norwich on Sunday.

Tony Mowbray's side are four games without a win in the Championship and have lost each of their last three matches in the division, with the latest coming in a 5-1 loss to Stoke at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats are now six points off the play-off places and will need to turn their fortunes around and go on a run of positive results to give themselves a chance of securing a top-six finish by the end of the season.

Goalscoring has been an issue for Sunderland in recent weeks after Ross Stewart was ruled out for the remainder of the campaign and Ellis Simms returned to Everton, with Joe Gelhardt coming in from Leeds as the only arrival up front.

They have only scored more than one goal in a game once in their last seven outings in the Championship and Gelhardt has managed one goal in his seven appearances for the club in the division.

Will Harry Gardiner get a chance at Sunderland?

Goalscoring was no problem for the U21 side on Monday night as the young Black Cats beat Stoke, ironically, 4-1 in the Premier League 2 and one academy star caught the eye with an excellent display - Harry Gardiner.

The likes of Jewison Bennette and Isaac Lihadji also played in the match but it was the 19-year-old striker who impressed as the marksman scored twice and forced an own goal, which was initially credited as his hat-trick.

Gardiner has now notched six goals in ten Premier League 2 outings for the U21s this season with this coming after the dynamo managed six goals in ten appearances for the U18s in the 2021/22 campaign.

Mowbray must now promote the teenager, who journalist Josh Bunting stated is "scoring goals" and performing "regularly well", to compete with Gelhardt for a place in the team.

The on-loan Leeds forward has been involved in two goals, one goal and one assist, in his seven Championship appearances and has missed three 'big chances' so far.

The youngster is struggling for form and bringing the 19-year-old academy striker into the side, off the back of his superb performance against Stoke for the U21s, could give him much-needed competition and a rest for the upcoming clash with the Canaries.

It is hard to gauge whether or not Gardiner can translate his form from youth level to the first-team squad but the only way to find out is to chuck him in at the deep end and to see if he sinks or swims. He could well become the club's secret weapon during the back end of the campaign.