In a week where Sunderland’s season will come to a head, Jack Ross could be forgiven for feeling the heat.
However, with the Black Cats’ Play-Off Final against Charlton Athletic is just a matter of three days away now, Ross is feeling relaxed with a sense of normality surrounding the Academy of Light.
Having played at Wembley in the Checkatrade Trophy Final against Portsmouth just eight weeks ago, Ross believes the previous build-up has helped his players keep a lid on their emotions with a big job to be done.
“I don’t know if it was because we were there recently, but it’s felt different this week [to the cup final week], but in a good way,” Ross told the media at Wednesday’s press conference.
“It’s felt fairly normal and previously it didn’t.
“It felt like a really big week for the club, and there was a lot going on then. We didn’t really know what we were going into.
“But I just feel there’s been a real increased sense of normality this week which has helped us, and I think that’s also helped to take the tension off what’s at stake in the game.
“The players know what’s at stake, but they have done since the first game of the season.
“The difference is, now we only have one game to get the right result to do what we set out to do right at the start of the season.
“I must admit I’m not nervous, not just because we’ve been there before,” he continued.
“I think as a manager if you feel if you prepare as thoroughly as you can and you do as much with your team as you can, you have to just feel a certain amount of comfort.
“There’s not a huge amount I can do after that. I’ve been fascinated in leadership, and have been for a number of years, and you can go way back to some of the Roman generals - Alexander the Great and people like that - and how they focused on tactics and preparation too, but they all made sacrifices to the Gods before it.
“That probably sums up that they knew you can prepare as much as you want but ultimately there’s a bit of fate involved in it.
“Ultimately for me, it’s about knowing that everything I do this week is done properly and thoroughly.
“And once I feel as though I’ve achieved that, come Sunday, of course you get caught up in the emotion of it, but you also have to understand that in that atmosphere you can’t affect much from the sideline because nobody can hear you.”
