An injury to Gavin McCann has given Jason McAteer the chance to establish himself in his favourite central midfield position when Sunderland take on Middlesbrough tonight.
McAteer is expected to recover from a slight hamstring strain picked up in the Republic of Ireland's 4-2 defeat in their European Championship qualifier in Russia as he seeks to become Claudio Reyna's regular midfield partner.
Manager Peter Reid has been delighted with McAteer since moving him from wide right, coinciding with McCann's injury and the arrival of £3.5 million winger Mathew Piper from Leicester.
"Jason has been brilliant for us in central midfield and, to be fair to him, he's never let us down when he has played there for us," said Reid. "It's the position where he was most effective in his Bolton days when I was watching him regularly there.
"I've always said that if you get into the team and play well enough then you have a great chance of staying there.
"That's the challenge in front of Jason and he'll be aware of that because there's a lot of competition emerging now in midfield and the arrival of Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart means that we now have plenty of competition up front," Reid said.
The Black Cats are desperate to improve on last season's derby record when they managed a paltry point from four games against Middlesbrough and Newcastle, scoring only one goal in the process.
PA