Paddy Madden relishing Black Cat Friday as Sunderland visit Fleetwood Town

Town host the North East giants in League One (7.45pm), with the clubs in contrasting form.

Sunderland are without a win in four games, including this month’s EFL Trophy defeat at Highbury, whereas the Cod Army have scored nine goals in their last two League One games, winning four of the last five.

Five-goal Madden is backing Fleetwood to beat anyone if they can maintain their fine form.

The Irishman said: “Sunderland are a big club and they’re doing well this year. I think it’s going to be a tough game.

“Their aspirations will be promotion, like ourselves this year, so it will be a good encounter on Friday.

“Fingers crossed we’ll be up there. If we keep putting in performances like we have in the last few weeks I don’t think many teams in the league will live with us.

“We just need to keep doing that, not get ahead of ourselves and keep taking each game as it comes, and we’ll be fine.”

Professionalism has been the key of late for the 30-year-old as Town have started games well but also finished strongly.

And Madden says understanding in the squad is growing, even though tier three restrictions mean they must continue to play home games behind closed doors for the time being.

“In the last couple of games we’ve really put teams to the sword,” he added. “Bristol Rovers was a great performance as was Plymouth, beating them 4-1 and 5-1. The confidence is high in the camp.

“We’re just looking to do that in each game now. We’ve got a flow and everyone is understanding each other better.

“From start to finish the boys have been putting professional performances in.

“You have to have that mindset every game if you want to go where we want to go. That’s the way to approach each game.”