Luke O’Nien looks ahead to Sunderland’s upcoming fixtures – including the Wear-Tyne derby against Newcastle United in the FA Cup.
Luke O’Nien has expressed excitement for the upcoming Wear-Tyne derby next month but stresses the team’s need to focus on the immediate fixtures at hand.
Before clashing with Newcastle in the FA Cup third round on Saturday, January 6, Sunderland has three Championship games scheduled. They kick off with an away game against Hull on Boxing Day, followed by matches against Rotherham and Preston. Only after these matches will they confront their North East rivals at the Stadium of Light.
“Obviously the derby is a long time away in terms of football,” O’Nien, who has captained Sunderland for most of the season, told the Echo: “We’ve got three games between now and then. Listen, we get excited when we talk about it, when the draw came out, but there’s just so many things happening before then.
Sunderland dropped to ninth in the Championship after a 3-0 defeat against Coventry in Michael Beale’s first game in charge of the Black Cats, but remain just three points off a play-off place.
On the Boxing Day trip to Hull, O’Nien added: “I’m looking forward to Boxing Day, it’s a quick turnaround which suits us nicely. Nothing needs to change drastically, we just need to tighten up in a few areas. We’ll do our homework on Hull, watch a bit of our game back and move forward as a team like we always do.”