SUNDERLAND’S players will be using the memories of last season’s play-off success to drive them on when they travel to Preston next Monday looking to clinch a place in this season’s end-of-season shootout in the Championship.

The Black Cats travelled to Morecambe on the final day of last season needing a victory to guarantee their place in the play-offs, and won 1-0 before going on to clinch promotion at Wembley.

Things are tougher this time around as Sunderland’s fate is not in their own hands heading into their final game of the regular campaign at Deepdale. They currently sit in seventh position, two points adrift of sixth-placed Millwall, although they will drop to eighth if Blackburn win their penultimate game against Luton Town this afternoon.

Whatever happens today, Sunderland have to beat Preston to have any chance of finishing in the top six, and having experienced play-off success last season, Patrick Roberts is hoping lightning strikes twice.

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“We’ve done it last year and will do it this year and go right to the end and see what happens,” said Roberts, whose stoppage-time strike secured a 2-2 draw with Watford in Sunderland’s final home game of the regular season at the weekend. “We’ve had a good season so hopefully it finishes in the right way.

“We can all hold our heads high and be proud of what we’ve done this season and that’s all we can ask for really.”

Sunderland’s players were afforded a post-match lap of honour as they completed their home programme on Saturday, with a sold-out Stadium of Light appreciative of the Black Cats’ efforts as they clawed back a two-goal deficit to claim a point that could yet prove crucial in the final reckoning.

Having come up through the play-offs last term, Sunderland’s main aim this season was to stabilise in the second tier, so whatever happens on the final day, Tony Mowbray and his players can be justifiably proud of their efforts over the course of the last nine months.

“Sunderland fans want us to work hard and do our best,” said Roberts. “Make ourselves proud of this club. I was immensely proud to be part of the promotion last season and we came into this season with no fear.

“We’ve tried to attack the league. If we come up short in the end, we come up short, but we always give our all until the end.”