Tony Mowbray's sees Sunderland's FA Cup fourth round tie at Fulham as a chance for his side to test their credentials against Premier League opposition - and insists he will not 'put the kids in' this weekend. The Black Cats' Championship campaign takes precedence but the head coach is not taking the cup lightly, not least because he respects Sunderland's history in the competition and this is the 50th anniversary of the club's famous triumph against Leeds United at Wembley in 1973.
Sunderland are part of a pack of clubs who are in with a chance of a Championship play-off place and Mowbray says Saturday's game at Craven Cottage is an opportunity to measure themselves against a Fulham side that finished top of the pile last season to earn promotion to the top flight and now sits seventh in the table and is in with a chance of European qualification. "The history of every football club is crucially important," said Mowbray.
"I'm very conscious of 50 years ago [when Sunderland last lifted the FA Cup]. We want to do well, but we have to put into context that we're playing against a team that is one of the form teams in the Premier League at this moment.
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"I know they have lost two really tight games [against Newcastle United and Spurs] and I have watched both of those games and they probably didn't deserve to lose either of them, but they did. I think the balance for their manager is whether they try and find a winning way again to get more confidence and belief, or do they look to the next league game and keep going and see if they can qualify for Europe?
"When I look at their squad, even the players that haven't played on a regular basis are still players that played every week in the Championship last year. The likes of Tom Cairney isn't a regular starter, Harry Wilson hasn't been a regular starter ... and yet they ripped the Championship to shreds last year, they were way too good for that division.
"Whoever they play, whatever team they put out, they are going to be really difficult to play against and we should be ready for that. I don't see it as a game where we put all the kids in and it doesn't really matter, it's a game where we will have a huge travelling support and we need to go and try and be competitive against a really good team.
"Let's see where we are; let's check out our credentials almost and see if we can compete with a team that is flying pretty high in the Premier League."
As far as squad rotation is concerned, Mowbray's room for manoeuvre is limited, with skipper Corry Evans this week ruled out for the remainder of the season, while the likes of Alex Pritchard, Dennis Cirkin, Lynden Gooch, and long-term casualty Elliot Embleton have all been missing of late, and Luke O'Nien is ineligible as he serves the second game of a three-match suspension. Aji Alese returned from injury for last weekend's win against Middlesbrough but has not trained this week, and Mowbray indicated that he will not risk starting him in the cup.
New midfield signing Pierre Ekwah will come into the equation after he completed his move from West Ham this week. And full-back Niall Huggins could come into Mowbray's thinking after he resumed training this week after recovering from an ankle issue.
Asked about injuries, Mowbray said: "There are always problems! Whatever team we put out, I'll make them aware that Fulham are a really good team who are really well coached.
"They can play positional football because they have really good technical footballers, so it is a real challenge for us. It's not going to be like a Championship game, it's almost going to be like a different sport, really, when you play top teams who play positional football and move the ball around really quickly.
"It's a great challenge to go and test ourselves and see how we get on. We've got the odd question over fitness.
"Is Aji going to be fit or not? Is Niall Huggins going to be fit having not kicked a ball for a long time? Generally, that left-back position is half an issue for us.
"Then we have to decide who is going to play in this role or that role and who is going to be on the bench. They're not problems, really, they're decisions.
"Niall trained today, but he's only a few days into training having been out for a period of time. And yet Aji had five weeks without kicking a ball, really, and then came and played the other day.
"It's maybe a big ask for Aji, who hasn't trained this week on the back of Sunday, to think about starting again - I'm not sure that's the answer. We'll assess it tomorrow, see who trains, and what we think the balance of the team is going to be."
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