Source: Eurosport
Sbragia won`t watch rivals
Ricky Sbragia will ignore Saturday's Barclays Premier League fixtures even though they could plunge Sunderland into the relegation zone.
Victories for derby rivals Newcastle over Fulham and Hull at Bolton could put the Black Cats back into the bottom three before they run out at Portsmouth on Monday evening. By the same token, poor results for the teams currently in 17th and 18th places in the table respectively could leave the Wearsiders all but safe.
However, Sbragia, just as he did on Monday evening when he went to his local pub rather than watch the Magpies beat Middlesbrough 3-1 to ease themselves out of the drop zone, will not pay any attention to what is going on elsewhere until after the final whistle.
Asked if he will have one eye on events at St James' Park and the Reebok Stadium, he said: "No, not really.
"At 5pm I will, but not during the day. I will be training, I will probably be here [at the training ground] most of the time.
Hopefully, all the results go for us and they all lose. That will be ideal for us and then on the Monday, we will know exactly what we need to get.
"It might only be a point. It could be a possibility - I might be wrong - but Portsmouth could be safe if the other results go right, so maybe in hindsight, the Monday night has been decent for us."
