'We need to go again': Alex Neil prepares for his biggest Sunderland test yet as Wearside excitement rises

Sunderland have ended the regular campaign on strong form and they look for the first time to be a team going into these nerve-shredding contests on the up.

Over 40,000 tickets have already been sold, while the newly-formed Spirit of 37 group are planning a spectacular pre-match display.

It reflects the fact that while fully aware of the test Sheffield Wednesday will pose, and it will be a stern one, optimism is significantly more plentiful supply than in previous campaigns.

"That's pleasing," Alex Neil says when this is put to him.

Because while all managers have a sense of the mood of their club, this is a head coach who genuinely seems to be able to almost entirely block out the noise.

He has noticed, of course, that the tension during his first home games in charge has given way to something altogether more unified.

There is an irony though that is exactly because of his no-nonsense, unsentimental approach that the support has largely taken to him so readily.

There is a respect for both the focus and the single-mindedness with which Neil has made his side more resilient and harder to beat.

"I know about thinks like ticket sales but in terms of the sentiment among fans and thinks like that, I don't really know," Neil said on Thursday.

"I don't read anything to be brutally honest.

"I get updated a bit in terms of how things are perceived, but I'm not one to go on[line] to see what Jimmy from Cleadon thinks about how I've set the team up.

"My focus is on having a clear mind so I can get the team ready. We do a lot of hard work behind the scenes and that's where I get my confidence from, we leave nothing to chance and we work as hard as anybody.

"The thing about popularity is, people will not like you just because of the way you look, because you say a certain word a certain way.

"Some people just won't like you.

"Equally, some people will like you because they understand what you're trying to do.

"For me, as a manager you want to be popular enough to be given time so you can make a difference to the club.

"Whether people sing your name... it doesn't matter, as you know I'm not one to be giving it all that at the end of a game, fist-pumping and all that.

"Fans care about winning games. All the rest is a sideshow.

"If the fans see their team organised, working hard, believing in the cause and dying for it on the pitch, that's all they want.

"That's all I try to deliver."

Focusing only on the next game, not entertaining questions on the future or more pertinently, the past, has been a cornerstone of the Neil approach that has brought stability to a season that was spiralling out of control.

That applies now more than ever, at a club where play-offs have invariably equalled pain.

"It'd be naive for me to sit here and say it's not something that has been brought up," Neil said.

"Naturally as a fan when you've seen that happen repeatedly, what I will say, I'm of the view if you continually talk about something negatively, you will end up getting a negative outcome.

"That's why I can sometimes come across as a bit prickly in interviews, but it's just because I'm trying to be positive for my team and for my club.

"The last thing I want is people talking negatively about things that happened years ago, because we can't affect that.

"It's all about the now, and I don't think it's helpful for us to talk about things in the past."

So what about the now?

Neil will look to try and find weaknesses in a very strong Wednesday side whose 3-5-2 system he has used himself extensively, and over and above that

Keeping things settled and consistent, whilst also keeping conscious of the added emotions around a game like this.

"Focus is the big word I use with the players," Neil said.

"You can't be overconfident, thinking you're just going to go out there and do this and that, and it becomes a shock when you can't. "Equally you can't be fearful, you have to get into that zone of believing in what you're doing.

"Mindset is a massive, massive thing.

"We need to make sure we have the right one, and I think we've displayed that previously with the amount of late goals we've scored.

"They're a good team, a big club, but so are we.

"We've got processes and if I was to do it different, I would ask why? Because every game is massive for us.

"We know what we want to do, how we want to go about it.

"But what you do definitely need to do is be attuned to your players," he added.

"No disrespect to any other team but playing a team near the bottom of the table at home, for example, doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of weight on the shoulders of the players as is this.

"So it would be very naive of me to say they're in exactly the same mode because they're not, they understand the importance of the match and the expectation.

"For these lads, this could be the biggest game they've ever played in.

"I will speak to individuals because everyone is different, we have got experienced players who have been there and done it, who we'll lean on.

"It's about giving each player what they need to get into that mindset, that zone that I've spoken about."

There is a quiet pride from Neil in the job his players have done over the last few months and a growing bond with them, but equally is his message that nothing has been achieved yet.

"Because of the points we've had to get, I think that's what makes it an achievement [to be in the play-offs]," Neil said.

"To get to the play-offs first and foremost, you might only have to come in and win a few games to get there. To hit two points-per-game over 15 matches and to hit 84 points, that speaks volumes of what the players have done.

"We picked up a squad where some of the younger lads had been flogged and weren't particularly ready, some of the lads we signed in January were lacking game time.

"Some of these variables made it more difficult so to come through unscathed, pick up the points we have in, not a comfortable manner but for it to be in our hands on the final day, was an achievement.

"But as ever, football management is a never-ending mountain climb isn't it? You think you've reached the summit and then all of a sudden you look up and there's another one you're facing."

"We need to go again.

Does Wearside expect? Given its recent history, it would be a stretch to say so. But it hopes and most importantly, it does believe.