Sunderland urged to 'enjoy the challenge' of late-season play-offs push

Tony Mowbray hopes the Sunderland players will ‘enjoy the challenge’ of attempting to chase down an unlikely play-offs position.

Sunderland entered into the season with a target of survival and consolidation in the Championship after winning the League One play-offs last season. They actually finished fifth in League One, and the two teams who went up automatically, Rotherham and Wigan, are embroiled in a relegation scrap.

That highlights how well Sunderland have done to be in touch with the top six heading into the final five games of the season. However, they are four points off the pace so it is likely they will need to be practically perfect to crash the party.

That starts with a home double-header against Birmingham and Huddersfield, and Mowbray is reluctant to look too far ahead of those fixtures – but he’s certainly not ruling anything out at this stage.

Speaking about the run-in to the Championship season, Mowbray said: "You can see the finish line now, just down the road.

"We've got five games to go, and if we can win these next two home games, then we'll have three games to go and we'll be right in touch. We should rightly be excited.

"What you do know, with so few games left, is that if you lose a game, it can put you out of contention if you're the team chasing. We have to be really focused and concentrate on tomorrow (Birmingham), and hope that we can make it exciting for Tuesday night [against Huddersfield].

"Then, if we can win on Tuesday too, that'll make it really exciting for the following weekend, and then every game is genuinely a cup final because you're going to have to get three points. If you don't, you'll drop away.

"Really, the target has to be for us to get as close as we possibly can to winning five football matches. That's what it might take and, let's be honest, that's pretty unlikely because we haven't done it all season, so why would we do it now?

"But let's enjoy the challenge, starting with Birmingham tomorrow. Let's get three points, and see where that takes us."

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