Sunderland captain John O'Shea has stressed that he and his team-mates "have to focus on ourselves" as they head into the final third of the Premier League season.
Previous experience gives Sunderland a boost heading towards the run-in
The Black Cats are currently bottom of the league and face a tough task in maintaining their Premier League status, but as O'Shea told the Sunderland Echo he and his team-mates can take confidence from having beaten the odds in seasons gone by.
The Irishman was keen to state that his side "know ourselves from the last few years if we do our own job, that takes care of it" but is admittedly wary of becoming too complacent by "just saying yeah we’ve done it before so we’ll do it again."
O'Shea touched on the club's Premier League standard set-up, saying "everything is prepared right for us, facilities and that" and so it only comes down to the 11 men on the pitch to "put in a performance" on the day.
Black Cats firmly focused on their own destiny
Sunderland currently lie six points behind 17th-placed Crystal Palace and require nothing but a win against Burnley next week in order to avoid being cut adrift with 11 games remaining as of today.
O'Shea says that other teams' results are not the be all end all, but that he does admit that "naturally you look to other results" and added that being in a situation where Sunderland rely upon other teams losing is "something we have to avoid without a doubt."
The 35-year-old is under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task ahead however, drawing from their 2-0 defeat at Everton where "you’re half an inch from making it 1-1 then the next thing you’re 2-0 down" after Jermain Defoe struck the bar prior to Romelu Lukaku doubling the Toffees' advantage.