Neil Maddison
Former Middlesbrough midfielder on BBC Radio Tees

The Boro keeper Seny Dieng has been excellent so far making some great saves.

He is coolness personified.

His save to deny Sunderland's Patrick Roberts earlier has kept this level at 0-0.

Tommy Smith is very lucky not to have been booked.

He pulls Jack Clarke back as the Sunderland forward speeds forward and the referee rightly plays advantage.

However, Sunderland then keep the ball for so long that the referee seems to forget the indiscretion and forgets to give the defender a yellow card.

Middlesbrough forward Sam Greenwood was booked in the aftermath of the booking for his team-mate Isaiah Jones a minute ago, presumably for being a little too forthright with his views.

Trai Hume sends a shot narrowly over the top as Sunderland have a go.

This game has really come to life now after a quiet opening few minutes.

Sunderland launch a counter attack after dealing with another Boro corner and Isaiah Jones is pulled up for tripping Abdoullah Ba about 30 yards from goal.

Replays show the Boro man is very unlucky.

Image source, Rex Features

Niall Huggins, who scored a wonderful goal in the 2-0 win over Watford in midweek, can't carry on for the home side so Jenson Seelt is on in his stead.

Sam Greenwood sees a shot deflected wide for a corner as Boro push for that opener.

Home defender Niall Huggins is just getting a bit of treatment so we've got a break in play.

How has this not gone in?!

Sam Greenwood drives a shot across goal that Sunderland goalkeeper Antony Patterson spills out to Josh Coburn but, under pressure, he can only clatter an effort against the post on the rebound.

That Patrick Roberts run and shot has got the Sunderland fans in full voice now.

The away side had had the better of the opening exchanges but Sunderland are fourth in the table for a reason.

Oooft, what a goal this would have been!

Patrick Roberts picks the ball up just inside the Boro half and drives forward with real intent.

The Boro defence back off and eventually his low shot is bound for the bottom corner before Seny Dieng sticks out a size 10 to turn his effort around the post.

Sunderland midfielder Dan Neil is the first in the book for a poor challenge on Josh Coburn on the halfway line.

The young Black Cats midfielder was played into bother by Jobe Bellingham but he's lucky he didn't make full contact on Coburn because I think the card would have been another colour if he had.

Oxford United take the lead against the run of play!

It had been all Bristol Rovers in the first 10 minutes but Billy Bodin puts away Oxford's first chance of the game.

Ruben Rodrigues sends the ball in to Bodin, he controls it with his chest and fires in.

As it stands, the U's are going top of League One.

The away side are still having the better of this.

Tommy Smith stands up a a cross to the back stick for Josh Coburn to attack but it's just too high for the big frontman.

Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray has a good record against his boyhood club and former employer Middlesbrough.

The veteran gaffer has lost just two of his 10 competitive games against Boro.

Should he lead his current side to victory today he might find Sunday lunch is a bit awkward.

His son is a Middlesbrough season-ticket holder and is in the away end today.

Sunderland decide they've had enough of Boro monopolising possession and press high up to go and get it back.

Abdoullah Ba drifts in off the left and cracks a curling effort just over the bar.

Image source, Rex Features

Tidy start from Middlesbrough.

The away side keep the ball for basically the first two minutes.

They're eventually pulled up for an offside but that's a good way to draw a bit of the sting out and get yourselves into the match on a derby day.

We're off and running on Wearside.

Sunderland will close the gap on the top two to three points with a win today but Middlesbrough have won their past three.

This could be a cracker.

The game at the Stadium of Light isn't the only early kick off in the EFL today.

In League One, in-form Oxford United will go top with a home win over Bristol Rovers.

The Gas are in pretty decent nick themselves, with three wins from their past four league games.

We'll keep you up to date with any goals from that one.

Image source, PA Media

It's hard to say what's falling quicker, the leaves on the trees or EFL managers.

Three clubs chose to roll the dice this week as they look to kickstart their seasons.

Bradford were the first to move when they sacked Mark Hughes on Wednesday evening and mere minutes later Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday followed suit when they sacked Xisco Munoz following their worst ever start to a season.

Gillingham jumped on the sacking bandwagon by parting company with Neil Harris on Thursday.

If you're a fan of any of those trio or even if you're not we'd love to hear from you.

Good decisions? Who could you see coming in as replacements?

Let us know by getting in touch using #bbcefl

Image source, Rex Features

Today's early kick off isn't the first EFL derby this weekend.

Birmingham kicked off the weekend with a 3-1 win over near neighbours West Brom to propel themselves up to fifth in the table.

The away side took the lead through John Swift's crisp strike before the home side levelled through Juninho Bacuna's controversial penalty, with replays showing Blues forward Koji Miyoshi had slipped over rather than been fouled.

John Eustace's men made the most of their good fortune and Dion Sanderson headed them into the lead.

Sub Gary Gardner crashed home a quality free-kick to put the icing on the cake late on.

Right, scratch the below.

Well, not all of it.

Rav van den Berg has picked up an injury in the warm up so Tommy Smith comes back in for him at right-back for Middlesbrough.