IN-FORM Crewe striker Mikael Mandron is looking forward to carrying his scoring form going at former club Sunderland.

Mandron, 26, started his career off in the UK serving an academy scholarship with the Black Cats and made his debut for the club in the Premier League back in April 2013.

The Frenchman moved on to Eastleigh, Wigan, Colchester and Gillingham before arriving at Gresty Road this summer where he has kicked off his Alex career in impressive style with five goals in seven games.

Mandron recalled: "I was a young boy coming through when they were in the Premier League. There were no financial issues then and they had the likes of John O'Shea and Wes Brown playing for them.

"The fans were amazing and it is a huge club which deserved to be back up there.

"I hope they have a good season, but not tomorrow.

"I scored a goal against them for Gillingham last season which although I didn't realise at the time stopped them from reaching the play-offs. Hopefully I can score goals tomorrow and we can beat them."

Boss Dave Artell says he is delighted with the impact Mandron has made and says the club's player profiling was a big factor in the signing.

"He's a breath of fresh air, a good bloke and a good character who works his socks off. He seems to be loving his life in Crewe.

"When we profile players it is important seeing which strikers score lots of goals. But there's plenty of forwards who have gone from one team who play a certain way to another team playing differently and haven't scored, not because they are bad players but, perhaps, because they don't fit the style.

"We try to get that right and the way we profile is on the basis of whether they are "not a bad fit" for us," explained Artell who said he fielded a couple of "derogatory" calls about his players ahead of last Friday's transfer deadline.

"There were one or two enquiries that would have got more of a response if they'd been written on the back of a fag packet. I'm not knocking them for trying. They think we're a football club struggling financially but that is not the case."

Artell will assess a couple of niggles sustained in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Blackpool before heading off for Wearside for what is a 7pm kick off.

Crewe last visited the Stadium of Light more than 16 years ago in their Championship days and Artell admitted: "It's why we are in League One and it is going to be a great challenge for the club."