Another big week – and I’ll be disappointed if we don’t end it with two wins out of two

The games are coming thick and fast as Sunderland prepare to play the all too familiar faces of Walsall tonight in the FA Cup. When you play the same team three times in two and a half weeks, that sort of familiarity can inevitably cause players to lose a bit of focus, especially if any are feeling jaded, so Jack Ross will be rallying his men and trying to rejuvenate them as a place in the third round of the FA Cup is at stake.

It probably would have made his job easier if a Premier League club was the reward for winning on Tuesday night, but Bolton Wanderers, even away from home, I consider to be a winnable cup tie, so it still could happen in the round after.

If Sunderland do progress through to round three, I can see thousands making the journey, I’ve seen it happen at their ground before.

It could be a great away day, but that can only happen if the players shake off any familiarity which can lead to a lack of concentration and do the business tonight.

After Walsall in the cup, just four days later it’s back to the bread and butter of League One against Bristol Rovers.

We’re at home again, and with a relentless schedule coming up, the manager might want to utilise his squad over the two games this week.

With the Accrington Stanley game abandoned, it means Sunderland have another game to fit in at the end of the season, but having played over 70 minutes and travelled to Lancashire and back, it turned out to be a total waste of energy.

That has to be put aside over the next two games, and the Rovers fixture has to be seen as must win to make up for the lost ground due to the abandonment and also seeing as Rovers are in the bottom four.

They may be struggling but that doesn’t mean it will be a walk in the park for Sunderland, I remember Oxford coming to Wearside earlier this season third from bottom, and Sunderland ended the game grateful for a point after a very difficult 90 minutes which wasn’t helped by another red card.

So Sunderland have two very important games this week, one for glory in the cup, the other arguably more important for the club’s long-term future, as no one wants another season in this league.

But Sunderland will be hot favourites to win both, and I’ll be very disappointed if they don’t.