Tony Mowbray believes it will feel like a 'big occasion' when Sunderland fans return to the Stadium of Light after a shortened World Cup break in early December. The Championship and Premier League will take a mid-season hiatus to accommodate the bulk of the winter tournament in Qatar, with four weeks left blank on the domestic fixture calendar between the round of games on November 11 and the resumption of the campaign on December 10.
But Sunderland have this week confirmed that their home game against Millwall, which was postponed earlier this month when the entire EFL programme was shelved in the wake of the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, has been rescheduled for Saturday, December 3. Both clubs had to agree to the move and the EFL had to give their permission to the move, but the benefit for Sunderland and Millwall is that it will no longer need to be squeezed into the packed programme in the latter half of the season.
"It was proposed to me and I liked the idea - let's get the game played and out of the way," said Mowbray. "Why wouldn't we want to play on a Saturday in front of a full stadium at the Stadium of Light, rather than a Wednesday night in February where we are fitting Millwall in as a third midweek game on the bounce?
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