Mark Atkinson is hopeful his players can pick up where they left off in December this weekend at Watford.
Sunderland under-18s head to Vicarage Road on Sunday for the second time in a month for their FA Youth Cup third round tie.
The young Black Cats made the mammoth journey south in December but saw the match postponed due to heavy snowfall in Hertfordshire.
And as Atkinson’s side prepare to head to Vicarage Road again, the youth team boss has urged his players to dust the cobwebs off and improve upon a run of three wins from their last five.
“We have had a decent break since our last match against Liverpool,” he said.
“The lads have had time off over Christmas and we just want to continue where we finished the first half of the season.
“We just need to build on that in the second part of the season, starting with Watford this weekend.
“It is a big game. There is a bit of prestige to the competition and we want to do well in it.
“Our main priority has to be on Sunday,” he continued.
“It is a cup competition, so we don’t want to look too far ahead, even though we know if we get through we have Blackburn Rovers in the next round.
“It is a big month because we have Chelsea in the Premier League Cup as well so we are looking forward to getting started on Sunday.”