Wanderers will play in front of the season's biggest Division One crowd in tomorrow's showdown with Sunderland.

A sell-out crowd will take the attendance within a whisker of the Stadium of Light's capacity of 42,000 and is expected to top the Nationwide League high of 41,433 set at the Sunderland-Crewe game on December 28.

And, such is the demand on Wearside, that the game will be beamed live to the 1,200-capacity Crowtree Leisure Centre - the biggest viable venue in the city.

Wanderers' allocation of just over 2,100 tickets was snapped up by postal application within days of going on sale and the last of the home tickets were sold this week.

"This is the sort of stage we want to play on all the time in the Premiership," Colin Todd said as Wanderers prepared for their first visit to the Stadium of Light.

"It's a game everyone should be looking forward to . . . one we're going to relish and really enjoy.

"What an incentive . . . to show everyone what we can do, how we can perform."

That's the name of the game now. A month ago its was being billed as a Championship decider, now it's simply an opportunity for Wanderers to show they can still be treated seriously as a promotion force.

Scott Sellars, tipped for a surprise England call but missing when Kevin Keegan announced his squad yesterday, knows from his Newcastle days that the atmosphere can be white-hot on Wearside and reckons he and fellow former Magpie, Robbie Elliott, will be specially targeted.

"We're going to need cotton wool in our ears," the Wanderers skipper joked as he relished the big occasion. "But I don't see us being under any pressure. If you can't enjoy playing in front of a crowd like that, you shouldn't be in the game."

Per Frandsen, who has lost his place in the Denmark squad, still believes Wanderers have what it takes to secure an automatic promotion place.

"Sunderland will be the Champions, for sure," he acknowledged. "They have been playing well all season - the same as we did when we won the title two years ago. But we have 10 games left and, with everything to play for, it's still a big, big game for us.

"We are one of the best teams in the division and we can beat anyone. If we can keep up what we started against QPR, we have a chance."

Robbie Elliott at left-back in place of the injured Mike Whitlow is likely to be the only change from the line-up that started last Saturday's 2-1 win. But Colin Todd is keeping his selection plans under wraps and a surprise or two can never be ruled out.

Sunderland boss Peter Reid, a famous ex-Wanderer, is making no premature claims about his own team's future but reckons: "Hand on heart, I still think Bolton will be up there."

His runaway leaders have lost just three games all season and have been in solid defensive form in recent weeks, keeping five successive clean sheets and winning their last nine home games.

Probable starting line-ups:

Wanderers - Jaaskelainen, Cox, Elliott, Frandsen, Warhurst, Fish, Johansen, Jensen, Taylor, Holdsworth, Sellars.

Sunderland - Sorensen, Makin, Melville, Craddock or Williams, Summerbee, Clarke, Ball, Johnston, Quinn, Phillips.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.