Sunderland boss speaks of respect for ‘huge’ Sheffield Wednesday

The Owls take on the Black Cats at the Stadium of Light this evening as they look to try and complete a league double over their fellow promotion-chasers, but Darren Moore’s side have a tough task on their hands in the North East.

Sunderland haven’t lost since their 3-0 defeat at Hillsborough last month, and their manager is eager to carry things on in front of a big crowd tonight.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Johnson said, “It feels a little like a cup final now that the Fleetwood game is off… For us it marks that big final push before some downtime ahead of the Wycombe game, whereas Sheffield Wednesday have had a long build-up and it’s been their focus for eight to ten days.

“We are really looking forward to it and I know we are expecting a lot of fans – if it wasn’t for the understandable anxiety around COVID-19, we would have been expecting even more.

“I have a lot of respect for Wednesday because it is a huge club and like us, they will be disappointed to find themselves in League One and be fighting extremely hard to earn the privilege of getting out of it.

“We enter 2022 in a good position and we are on the shoulders of the leaders, but we must continue to fight hard as the challengers if we hope to become champions.

“I truly believe that we have another gear in us and that we will get better.”

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