Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn admits they'll be looking to Ireland to increase crowd numbers at the Stadium of Light this season.

"We haven't pushed a big sell yet," he said. "But we're going to try to make it convenient for Irish people to come to the games because there's great interest over there. The Irish angle is there and it's significant.

"It's something we will treat with care because we don't want to just load them all up and bring them here like cattle. We want to give them an experience that will stop them going to watch Manchester United or Celtic the next week.

"Hopefully, Sunderland is starting to creep into the world that Newcastle has been in for the last 30 years."