Going for both at the same time.... MARTIN OâNeill says he sees the FA Cup as a help rather than a hindrance to Sunderlandâs season. And, ahead of Saturdayâs FA Cup quarter-final at Everton, heâs hoping that the two competitions can drive his side along in the closing stages of the campaign. âIâm a believer in having a good cup run to go alongside the league â I always have been,â he said. âThere was an occasion when I was at Aston Villa â and some people are still talking about it now â when I played a particularly young side in the Uefa Cup. âThe suggestion was that I hadnât taken the competition seriously, but that was a lot more complicated a situation than it might have first appeared to people. âIt was the last 32 of the competition, but we were third or fourth in the Premier League at the time and with a small squad, too. âThe same boys had played week in, week out and we were getting into the last 12-13 games of the season and we had to think of what was the best way to go. âWe had drawn 1-1 in the first leg against CSKA Moscow, but we had to go there, travel a long way and play on a plastic pitch and there were a lot of things to consider. âI played a weakened team and, unfortunately, we lost. âIronically enough, the weakened side were all the young players that people were calling out for to be given runs out, but we still lost and went out. âIt was disappointing, but it was an unusual situation. âWe hoped we would win it, but we also needed to protect our squad for the league run-in and the priority of finishing as high up the table as we could. âThat occasion always springs to mind now when I look back on cups. âBut, generally speaking, Iâm a big believer in the cups, I always want to do well in them and, in this instance, a combination of the two, league and cup, has kept us going. âI think it has genuinely been beneficial for us, rather than the opposite.â OâNeill concedes, though, that he might have had to look again at things had Sunderlandâs plight in the league remained as perilous as it was when he first arrived back in December. âYes, Iâm also well aware that things have fallen for us,â he admitted. âIâm aware that weâd won a couple of league games before going in to face Peterborough. âIâm not sure what my position would have been, for example, if we had only 25 points on the board this weekend going into the Everton game. âYouâve got look at your priorities. âBut, by the time came for us to play Peterborough, we had won games against Blackburn, QPR, Man City and Wigan and we were able to go for it.â
He just seems to be on the ball and sees it the same way that I would imagine how most of our supporters do..
