Sunderland prepare to face deadline day target Jonson Clarke-Harris, who has had mixed success at Bristol Rovers

Fri 22 February 2019 7:15, UK

Sunderland travel to Bristol Rovers this weekend, where they will come face to face with a January striker target.

After Josh Maja and Jerome Sinclair left, Sunderland were frantically looking for a new striker as the clock ticked down on deadline day.

A number of options were discussed, including Coventry City’s Jonson Clarke-Harris, .

Clarke-Harris could have jumped from mid-table Coventry to promotion-chasing Sunderland but instead ended up at relegation-battling Bristol Rovers.

And the Black Cats snapped up Will Grigg and Kazaiah Sterling instead to complete their attack.

But Jack Ross will be intrigued to see how Clarke-Harris performs this weekend after a mixed bag in Bristol Rovers’ trip to Portsmouth last Tuesday.

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Clarke-Harris helped dent Portsmouth’s automatic promotion hopes – helping Sunderland in the process – but he could have won the game.

The 24-year-old caused problems all night and was fouled for a first-half penalty, which he subsequently converted.

But when the Gas were handed a second penalty – with the scores tied at 1-1 – Clarke-Harris inexplicably sent the ball flying over the bar.

In fact, the miss was so bad that it did the rounds on social media with .

Clarke-Harris will be eager to prove a point to Sunderland this weekend, though, and bounce back from his penalty embarrassment.

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