Jack Ross has shrugged off Sunderland's winless record against play-off rivals Portsmouth - insisting he would rather face Pompey again than some of the teams the Black Cats have beaten.
Sunderland go into their two-legged play-off semi-final against Kenny Jackett's side having already faced the South Coast club three times this season, meeting twice in the league and also in the EFL Trophy final at Wembley.
The Wearsiders lost 3-1 at Fratton Park in December after being reduced to 10 men, drew 2-2 after extra-time in the Trophy final before losing a penalty shootout, and then drew 1-1 at the Stadium of Light at the end of April when both clubs were still in the hunt for automatic promotion.
But Ross says his side have performed well for large parts of all three games against Pompey and says there are other teams who have made life much more difficult for the Black Cats this season.
"I look at the games differently," said Ross.
"Even if we have had positive results against a team, I'll know if we've either not played well or if we have struggled to play against them.
"That probably causes me more concern, even though people will of course say it is the end result that matters.
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"In fact, the games against Portsmouth we have played well for parts of them - the games have been competitive and close.
"There are teams this season we have found it difficult to play against for different reasons and I would be more concerned about facing one of those.
"I think the way Portsmouth play, and the way we play, we cause them difficulties as well."
Glenn Loovens' sending off before Christmas changed the game at Fratton Park, with the sides level before the Dutchman was dismissed just after half-time.
At Wembley, Sunderland dominated the first half and should have been out of sight by half-time, before Pompey got back into the game in the second period to take the game to extra-time and then won on penalties.
And then, last month, Pompey keeper Craig MacGillivray made three outstanding saves to keep Sunderland at bay, with the draw taking automatic promotion out of the visitors' hands.
Ross said: "I think they came to win the game [last month], but we just played well and sustained it for a good chunk of the game.
"In the second half in particular, we were playing in a way that made it difficult for them to get out.
"Likewise I was asked recently whether I had asked my players to sit back in the second half at Wembley when we were winning 1-0 - far from it, Portsmouth just played really well in the second half and it made it difficult for us to get out.
"That can happen."
Both Sunderland and Portsmouth saw their form dip at the end of the season.
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Portsmouth's draw at Sunderland was the start of their late-season wobble, going on to lose at Peterborough United before drawing on the final day against Accrington Stanley to leave them winless in their last three outings.
And the Black Cats rounded off with back-to-back defeats at Fleetwood Town and Southend United, making it three losses out of six for them and only one win in seven.
Ross was bitterly disappointed at his side's display against Southend but has since spent time this week reinforcing positive messages to his players, reminding them to stick to the strengths on which their promotion challenge has been built all season.
"There are lots of ways to do that. You can do it out on the training pitch, we do it through analysis work, we do it individually," he said.
"We've used this week to remind them that they are good players and a good team.
"I think we are one of the best sides in the league, if not the best, at working the ball into wide areas and switching the game.
"There are other areas of the game that we need to get better at, but if we do the things we are good at we are a good team and we have shown that.
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"On Saturday we didn't have either Aiden [McGeady] or Lewis [Morgan] so we played with two strikers and that meant we needed to play a different way, but we didn't do that.
"The truth is that when we have Lewis and Aiden in the team we have natural width and that is when we are at our best and that's when we cause teams the most problems."
And of the Southend performance he added: "We are good side at what we do well, but there's a fundamental part that has to underpin everything and that is they must work hard and be competitive.
"I've very rarely been critical of the players this season because, even though they haven't played well all the time, the workrate and competitiveness was there.
"But on Sunday at Southend it was one of the very few games where they dipped below that standard."
