Former Sunderland full-back Chris Makin has reflected on his relationship down the right-hand side with Nicky Summerbee during the golden days under Peter Reid.

Makin joined Sunderland in 1997 from Marseille and was part of Reid's side that reached the Division One Play-off final in 1998, won the Division One title in 1999 and finished seventh in the Premier League in 2000.

He joined Ipswich Town midway through the 2000/01 campaign and helped the Tractor Boys to a fifth placed finish before representing them in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup.

His contribution to Sunderland has not been forgotten, though, and with the absence of football at the moment it has allowed a lot of time for reflection on days gone by.

The likes of Summerbee, Kevin Phillips, Niall Quinn and Micky Gray have reminisced on the Reid era recently and all four former Black Cats discussed the relationship Makin shared with Summerbee on Sunderland's right flank.

The pair now work as television pundits in Qatar and when reflecting on their time together at Sunderland, Makin explained how Summerbee was even 'better' than Manchester United, Real Madrid and England legend David Beckham on the right-wing.

"We had a few seasons at Sunderland where we had a wonderful partnership," Makin told the In The Box podcast.

"His crossing ability and his technique is one of those where he was frustrating to watch sometimes because he never had the pace to beat a full-back.

"But he would engineer a bit of space and whip a ball in from anywhere on the pitch and it was always behind the back four.

"We had Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips and Peter Reid signed Nicky Summerbee and everybody was like: 'What have we signed him for?'

"But during the promotion season he was the final piece of the jigsaw. He would put so many crosses in towards Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips and they should owe him a tremendous amount of gratitude because he set up so many goals for those two.

"At that time who was probably on a par or better than him at crossing a ball from the right hand side and it was David Beckham.

"If you look at 'Buzzer's' stats at the time, they were up there with or even better than David Beckham's, which says everything."

Summerbee was one of six former Sunderland players who made Makin's best XI of players he played with during his career and you can listen to his full interview on the In The Box podcast, here.