Sunderland ace plays down importance of Coventry City clash and discusses the promotion battle

The Black Cats face the Sky Blues on Sunday afternoon in what could prove a pivotal clash in the race for the top two.

But Maguire was keen to play down the importance of the meeting and, with plenty of football left to play, believes that there are still plenty more twists and turns to come in a ‘crazy’ end to the season.

“There's eleven games left of this season, there's plenty of points to pick up in the course of that,” he said, speaking to safc.com.

“Other teams will slip up, it's a crazy thing pressure and it's whoever deals with that the most that will come out on top.

“We're picking up form at the right time.”

On the challenge posed by the Sky Blues, he added: “They're doing really well in the league. They've got that run going and it's very tight at the top.

“I'm sure it'll be a tough game and they're a team that like to get the ball down and play football.

“But we fancy our chances. If we're at the top of our game then we don't fear anybody.”

As it was last season, Sunderland’s promotion hopes remain in their own hands.

But while last season ended in disappointment, Maguire believes lessons have been learned – leaving the Black Cats in a stronger position when it comes to competing for the top two this term.

“I think you could look at this season and last season, and there were times maybe last season when we weren't seeing games out well enough and coming away with a 1-1 draw.

“Then this season, there's games where you maybe feel it's going to be a draw and we get the win, so I think that's the difference.

“The hurt we felt last season, we know what we have to do this time around and hopefully this can be the season it's done.”