Sunderland star Luke O’Nien has admitted that the Black Cats players are excited to face Newcastle United in the FA Cup but stressed he is determined to not look too far ahead.
The Wearsiders are set to face their Tyneside rivals Newcastle in the FA Cup third round on 6th January at the Stadium of Light.
Both teams are set to meet each other after their last game in March 2016 at St. James’ Park, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
With Newcastle now flush with Saudi Arabian cash and aiming for the very top of the game, the tie represents a chance for Sunderland to bring their rivals back to earth.
However, the Black Cats star insisted that they are focused on their upcoming games before the Tyne-Wear derby and added that they are doing a lot of individual homework in preparation for the upcoming fixtures.
“Listen, we get excited when we talk about it, when the draw came out, but there’s just so many things happening before then”, O’Nien told the Sunderland Echo.
“We’ve got a lot of points to pick up, a lot of homework to do on each individual team to not get too far ahead.
“Really excited for that one but there’s a lot of work to do between then and now.”
Sunderland returned to winning ways on Boxing Day when edging out a 1-0 win over Hull City in the Championship.
