Managerless Sunderland must use this week's double-header against strugglers Burton Albion and Wigan Athletic to restore some momentum to their promotion push, according to Charlie Wyke.
The Black Cats were on the right track when they beat promotion rivals Ipswich Town at the Stadium of Light to move to within a point of the top two at the beginning of November, but since then they have picked up just two points from their last three league games and have slipped to eighth - with manager Phil Parkinson sacked as a result, meaning first team coach Andrew Taylor will be in temporary charge aganst Burton.
Following the win against Ipswich, a shock defeat at home to MK Dons followed by disappointing 1-1 draws at Doncaster Rovers and then Fleetwood have altered the mood on Wearside, and that means the pressure is on to take maximum points in the home games against Burton tomorrow and Wigan on Saturday.
Wyke, who scored the goal that gave Sunderland the lead at Fleetwood on Friday, says these next two fixtures must be the games that get the Black Cats back on course.
Speaking before Parkinson's dismissal, he said: "Yeah, it's definitely a chance to get some momentum going again.
"You look at the fixtures now and they should be in our favour.
"We've got two home games now and we're looking forward to them."
Burton have made a miserable start to the campaign but Sunderland must not take them lightly, with the Brewers inflicting a 4-2 defeat on promotion hopefuls Charlton last week, which saw them climb off the foot of the table to third-bottom.
Wyke said: "They'll be a tough team. They got a good result on Tuesday against Charlton.
"I know they've been struggling a bit, but we just need to take the positives from Fleetwood and go into Tuesday's game and try and get three points."
Sunderland had been hoping that the end of the national lockdown on Wednesday might see fans readmitted to the Stadium of Light in limited numbers for the first time since March.
But the entire North-East has been classified in Tier Three of the new restrictions that will come into force, and fans can only attend matches in areas in tiers one and two.
That means Sunderland - along with many other clubs - will have to continue for now playing behind-closed-doors as they have done since the start of the season.
"It's strange really," said Wyke.
"We watch videos of games we've played before and there's fans in and it's strange.
"We do miss them and football is a lot better with fans.
"You need fans in football, but we just have to get on with it."
