Martin O'Neill is keeping his fingers crossed that his Sunderland side's new-found confidence will not be shattered by title hopefuls Manchester City.
The Black Cats will run out for their New Year's Day clash with the Barclays Premier League leaders having taken seven points from the 12 on offer during the 59-year-old's reign to date to ease themselves three places and four points clear of the fight for top-flight survival.
However, with tough trips to Wigan, who currently occupy 18th place, and Champions League contenders Chelsea to come in their next two fixtures, O'Neill knows that position could be eroded if they do not maintain the standards they have set themselves during his early weeks at the club.
He said: "The confidence is good, but until you win a substantial number of football matches, I always feel that it can be a bit brittle.
"You don't want to destroy that in a couple of games. We have got some tough games coming up now - we have got this game, away to Wigan with a day's less rest, and I don't want to look that much further to the Chelsea game.
"The league games are vitally important to us.We wouldn't want to lose momentum but by the same token we obviously have a long-term aim - but we have a short-term aim as well."
Defenders Phil Bardsley and Titus Bramble are major doubts for the clash.
Full-back Bardsley (thigh) and centre-half Bramble (Achilles/calf) suffered injuries in the 1-1 Boxing Day draw with Everton and with Michael Turner (knee) also on the casualty list, manager Martin O'Neill is short of defensive options.
Midfielder Kieran Richardson has not trained all week because of illness but O'Neill is keeping his fingers crossed.
Connor Wickham, Fraizer Campbell and Craig Gordon (all knee) and Simon Mignolet (fractured nose and eye socket) remain on the sidelines.
Sergio Aguero has urged his Manchester City team-mates to "finish the job" and win the Barclays Premier League.
The Argentina striker feels the quality of the City squad has enabled him to settle quickly since his club record #38million move from Atletico Madrid last summer.
City established themselves as title favourites after losing just one of their opening 18 matches and Aguero wants an equally strong second half of the season.
The 23-year-old wrote on his personal website, www.sergioaguero.com: "I couldn't have wished for a better start to this new era in my personal and professional life, and everything I set for myself is being fulfilled.
"Fortunately, the adaptation was faster than I thought. It helped a lot to arrive at a club with a very serious project and a team with a solid base of great players and good people.
"We made a great start to the season and now we have to finish the job. We hope we can keep this pace. We want to win the league and we will give everything to succeed."
Full-backs Micah Richards and Aleksandar Kolarov are back in contention.
Right-back Richards was not risked in the Boxing Day draw at West Brom after a calf problem while left-back Kolarov has missed six games with a groin injury.
The pair's possible return means manager Roberto Mancini has a full-strength squad, aside from the absent Carlos Tevez.
Source: PA
Source: PA