Newcastle United staff got to the Stadium of Light early ahead of the Wear-Tyne derby and made their presence felt on Wearside.
As fans arrived, the backroom team have done their best to make the Toon squad feel at home with a dressing room makeover. The last time the teams clashed in the FA Cup, Sunderland's corporate staff scored an own goal with 'Howay the Lads' banners in the Newcastle areas to spark fury within the Black Cats' fanbase.
United's equipment staff have pinned up two huge Newcastle crests on the dressing room wall in the visiting changing area. And have brilliantly hung a plaque above the door reading: "Get into them".
That will be the last thing Newcastle players see before they come out of the dressing rooms.
"I think that's [bus ride to the stadium] part of it, it's all part of the game," Howe stated. "It's part of what we have to manage, but we've seen all that many times before. It's part of the excitement of the games."
From the moment Howe's players step off the bus and even on to the Sunderland pitch for a look around, they will be hit with boos from home fans.
Howe said: "You want to be the ones that go there and impose yourself on the game and quieten the crowd, use the crowd to our advantage. All these things we'll look to do.
"If you don't get the arousal levels right, if you hype the players up too much, then you can go out and not perform because you're overthinking things, you're not playing the game, you're playing the atmosphere."
Newcastle came out on top the last time the two sides met in January 2024. However, they haven't won in the league at the Stadium of Light since 2011 when Ryan Taylor's free kick gave them a 1-0 victory.
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