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Sunderland have been placed in Group A of this season’s Checkatrade Trophy alongside Stoke City U21s, Carlisle United and Morecambe.

The draw for the group stages of the competition took place on Wednesday, but the EFL had already placed the 48 EFL clubs into pre-determined groups, with consideration given to ensure travel time is minimised for supporters and recovery time is maximised for players.

That meant the Black Cats already new ahead of the draw that they would face assignments against Carlisle and Morecambe in the competition.

The draw confirmed that Stoke City U21s would join the Black Cats in Group A. They are guaranteed to visit the Stadium of Light, with all invited academy teams required to play their group games away from home. Jack Ross' side will also host one of Morecambe or Carlisle, and then play the other away from home.

The dates of the group stage clashes are yet to be confirmed, with the clubs now able to agree on suitable time and dates for said fixtures.

There was initially thoughts that Sunderland could have been drawn against rivals Newcastle, who have entered an U21 side into the competition for the second year running.

However, the EFL announced last that any hope of a Wear-Tyne derby will have to wait until after the group stage. They said after taking into consideration the thoughts of the police, Newcastle’s U21 side will not be allowed to be drawn into Group A alongside Jack Ross’ side. They have taken the same approach with Southampton and Portsmouth in the south side of the draw too.

In the past two seasons Sunderland had entered the competition as an invited U21 side, but having dropped to League One for the upcoming campaign, they are now obliged to enter a first team into the cup competition.

As part of competition rules, at least four players who started the previous match have to be included in the match day squad for Checkatrade Trophy games.

The top two teams from each group will make it through to the knockout stages, while making it to the final will ensure a visit to Wembley.

Match dates for the group stages are as follows:

Matchday one - w/c 3 September 2018

Matchday two - w/c 8 October 2018

Matchday three - w/c 12 November 2018