The Premier League side’s youngsters visit the Stadium of Light in the Checkatrade Trophy but Sunderland’s Jack Ross wants to face their north-east rivals in the Premier League

Sunderland meet Newcastle – but this is not the derby everyone wants

The big news on Wearside on Monday revolved around Peter Reid’s hair transplant and the former Sunderland manager’s denial that it was motivated by vanity.

Considering Reid’s old team are at home to Newcastle United on Tuesday the amount of coverage commanded by his follicular regrowth might have seemed a little out of proportion but then, as Jack Ross confirms, this derby is not the real thing.

Granted there will be extra road blocks, an increased police presence and rather steep ticket prices. Yet, as Reid’s latest successor puts it: “This is not the game everyone wants it to be.”

Instead it is a Checkatrade Trophy last-16 tie between Sunderland’s first team and a Newcastle Under-21 side coached by Ben Dawson. By coincidence it falls a day short of the one-year anniversary of Peter Beardsley’s suspension as manager of the Tyneside club’s development side while allegations of racism and bullying from junior players are investigated.

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Twelve months on Beardsley, who denies the allegations, remains on “gardening leave”, an internal inquiry is uncompleted and Dawson has done a fine job of nurturing youngsters including the 19-year-old Elias Sørensen. The Denmark Under-21 international has scored 19 goals for the second-strings this season and, despite recently declining an offer of a £1,500-a-week, three-year contract to replace his current deal which expires in June, he is expected to join a Football League club on loan this month.

While Sunderland’s own contract rebel – their top scorer Josh Maja, who has rejected a proposed new agreement in the wake of considerable interest from leading clubs – seems set to be rested, Sørensen is likely to find himself up against a battle-hardened League One defence as Checkatrade Trophy rules decree EFL clubs must field at least four outfield players with a high percentage of league appearances behind them.

There is scope for Newcastle to even things up by fielding up to five professionals aged over 21 – although no more than two can have made more than 40 first-team appearances – but Rafael Benítez has indicated his side’s Premier League survival struggle will almost certainly militate against that.

“We have a lot of [first-team] games,” says Newcastle’s manager. “We have to decide what’s most important.”

If that surely constitutes doing everything to ensure top-tier status, Ross’s priority is winning automatic promotion from League One. Sunderland stand third, one point behind second-placed Luton Town, with a game in hand. On Saturday Luton visit Wearside.

“If I’m honest, the Newcastle tie is far from ideal, it’s a no-win situation for us,” says Ross. “A consequence of our club having suffered two successive relegations is the soreness everyone feels when a fixture like this comes around. The extra motivation for me is to take Sunderland back into this fixture properly.

“I want to manage this club against Newcastle in a league game, ideally in the Premier League. That’s a task I was given – and I’ve set myself. I’m not going to dress Tuesday’s tie up as something it’s not.”

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Providing promotion is secured, Ross would also rather like to lead his side out at Wembley and knows only three games stand between Sunderland and a trip to the national stadium in this competition.

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“Wembley’s appealing and exciting because of the size of the support we’d bring,” he says. “Ideally we want to get there and win the trophy … but Saturday’s game against Luton is obviously very important to us and it will influence Tuesday’s team selection.”

Despite £15 tickets – up from the £3 charged in previous rounds – a sizeable crowd is expected at Sunderland’s near-50,000-capacity stadium for the first semi-senior Wear-Tyne derby since March 2016. Somewhat controversially the police advised against Newcastle fans being granted the allocation of 5,000 tickets Checkatrade rules theoretically entitle the visitors to, leaving them with 2,800.

Given the 7.45pm kick-off and history of violence scarring past north-east derbies, such caution is perhaps understandable but relations between the two sets of supporters have been infinitely more harmonious since 17 July 2014 when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

All 298 passengers and crew perished, including John Alder and Liam Sweeney, two Newcastle fans en route to their team’s pre-season tour of New Zealand. Within days Sunderland fans had joined Tyneside counterparts in assorted tributes and charity fund-raising initiatives honouring the pair’s memory and there is optimism this entente cordiale will endure.

Not that Newcastle supporters are likely to refrain from serenading Reid – or “Monkey Heed” as they used to delight in calling him – with a new, hair-related, ditty should he make one of his regular trips to the directors’ box on Tuesday night.