Sunderland will work at Manchester United's training base between Christmas and New Year with the Black Cats set to spend four days in the North-West. The Black Cats take on Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light in the Boxing Day fixture on Monday, but they then face back-to-back games in Lancashire as they visit next-to-bottom Wigan Athletic next Thursday evening followed by the New Year's Day game at third-bottom Blackpool a week on Sunday.
And rather than make two return trips across the Pennines in quick succession - with all the disruption to the squad's training that would involve - boss Tony Mowbray says the team will instead stay over between the two games, with Manchester United agreeing to allow the Black Cats to use their training facilities to prepare. "I think the [Christmas holiday] period itself is important because the games come thick and fast, so that Boxing Day fixture [against Blackburn] is one of three that come really quickly that week," said Mowbray.
"We've got to go to the North-West on the back of the Blackburn Rovers game and we're going to stay over in the North-West for four days between Christmas and the New Year. It's probably not ideal for family life, but the fixtures have thrown up Wigan and Blackpool and the correct thing to do is to stay there and rest properly, otherwise we would be getting back at 2am - like the fans will, unfortunately - but then do you bring the players in and train the next day, and then the very next day you would be coming in and getting back on the bus to go another three-and-a-half hours over to the North-West.
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"We feel it is best to stay over there and we've asked Manchester United if we can use their training facilities, and that's what we'll do."
Sunderland arrived at the midway point of their Championship season sitting in 13th place, just three points outside the play-off place and with a seven-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone. But Mowbray is conscious that this is a crucial stage of the campaign, and a good - or a bad - run of results over Christmas can make a big difference to the league table.
He said: "Hopefully the team will be ready for these big games because the table can change quite quickly if you pick up a lot of points in quite a short space of time. In a week, you could get nine points and find yourself in the top six - or you could get no points and be looking over your shoulder.
"It's an important period of time, and it's good to have our striker [Ross Stewart] back who scored at the weekend. I hope there is one or two really talented footballers who are champing at the bit to get back into the team and prove that they should be in the team."
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