SUNDERLAND'S trip to Burnley this afternoon marks the half-way stage of the season and manager Roy Keane's mid-term report demands that improvements continue on Wearside.

The Black Cats, one of five clubs up to ninth-placed West Brom on the same number of points, know a victory at Turf Moor will maintain the recent charge towards a play-off place with the festive fixture list approaching.

A Sunderland victory would mean they leapfrog their opponents, managed by former Stadium of Light No 2 Steve Cotterill, and would reaffirm the progress made under Keane some 23 matches into a 46-game Championship campaign.

The Irishman, admitting that he finally feels like a manager some four months into his reign, will not be content until the fruits of his labour come through, and that would mean securing a top-six place.

To have achieved that by May will be greatly helped by a major recruitment drive in the month-long January transfer window but, for now, he is more than happy with the players he has worked with on a daily basis since late August.

"What the players have done has been brilliant," said Keane, who took over at Sunderland when they were second from bottom of the league.

"I've done a bit of wheeling and dealing but, despite the progress we've made, we're not the finished article and the players have done brilliantly.

"Getting away from the bottom of the table was the first priority. Now the challenge is to get into the play-offs, which is its own unique challenge I suppose."

Despite a well-publicised training ground bust-up with Liam Lawrence and learning that three players still on Sunderland's books - Lawrence, Ben Alnwick and Chris Brown - were involved in an embarrassing sex-tape, Keane has not been shocked by anything that has happened so far in his time in charge.

And he feels that, particularly as results have improved over the past couple of months, he can sense a fantastic approach from his squad to keeping Sunderland heading in the right direction.

"I've not been surprised by anything," said Keane. "Every morning, coming in, I always expect the unexpected. Every day I expect something landing on my desk that will provide me with a challenge and sometimes it's so far from football you wouldn't realise it. That's part of the job, managing different situations.

"I was a player long enough to understand that players can provide different challenges. I want a happy staff and, generally speaking, most of them are pretty happy. There's a good atmosphere around the club. If the players are not happy they won't play well.

"You're always going to upset one or two of them with your selections but, generally speaking, they've been brilliant and have accepted my decisions.

"On the training pitch for an hour or two that's brilliant. That's the only time you can relax and enjoy yourself, the rest of the time is chasing people up, speaking to agents, managers, sorting travel and Christmas Day arrangements. Hundreds of things."

Setting up deals for new players is what is taking up the majority of Keane's time, although he insists that freed Hearts defender Stephen Pressley is not in his sights.

Arsenal striker Anthony Stokes, the subject of interest from Celtic, remains on his list of targets, while he is also believed to have inquired about former Manchester United team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Keane wants to strengthen but does admit that he is not too concerned, given that he has numerous players due to come back from loan spells in January, including Tommy Miller, Jon Stead and Clive Clarke.

"All the lads who've been on loan are coming back, none of the clubs have been in touch," said Keane. "Coventry touched base on Clarke about keeping him on loan but I've dismissed that, he's done his bit on loan. It'll have to be a bit more than that if they want to buy him. I'm expecting all the players to come back."

Burnley's home record is far from impressive, having lost four of their games at Turf Moor this season. They have won only one of their last six league games.

But they remain seventh and Keane, who will give Stephen Elliott a late fitness test on his hamstring injury this morning, said: "The lad up front for Burnley (Andy Gray) is out with a broken foot.

"Burnley have had a blip but they're still ahead of us in the league. Credit to Steve he's done a good job and has got a good spirit."