Fleetwood manager Joey Barton feels Sunderland will be like a 'wounded animal' when the two sides meet at Highbury on Friday night.
Former Newcastle United midfielder Barton is never afraid to share his opinions, and has often appeared to revel in getting under the skin of Black Cats fans.
But with his Fleetwood side in excellent form ahead of tomorrow night's clash, Barton offered a considered verdict on Sunderland's recent form.
And despite some disappointing recent results for Phil Parkinson's men, he knows they will offer a tough test of his side's abilities.
“They’ve started solidly again and have got a very low xG on shots against them," Barton said of Sunderland.
"They have just gone on a little bit of an iffy spell, getting beaten by Mansfield and MK Dons, and Doncaster scored a late goal against them last time out but, they will be competitive – Phil Parkinson's sides always are.
“They’ve got good players, big expectations because of the size of their football club but they will be a wounded animal, due to their recent results.
"It will be a very tough game for us, they will fancy their chances and won’t be worrying about coming to Fleetwood and we look forward to that challenge.
“We’re in a slot where we are happy to play anyone and we’ve played most of the sides in the division now and every game is an opportunity for us to learn something new about our team.”
The level of expectation on Fleetwood is very different than that of Sunderland, of course, even without fans inside the stadium.
And Barton feels the pressure is on the likes of the Black Cats to win promotion.
“We’ve got a benchmark to challenge ourselves here," he added. "We don’t have to get promoted whereas the likes of Sunderland, Ipswich and Hull do because they shouldn’t be in this division.
“In Fleetwood, we have to be competitive and even though our owner wants us to win every game because he is ambitious and wants to push on but he is also realistic and knows exactly what is going on here.
“We are developing the Academy and driving other things so We want to win every game and want to sit at the top of the pile and we think that we have a legitimate spot of being one of those teams along with probably eight or nine others who all fancy their chances.”
