Tony Mowbray stays grounded after Sunderland’s thumping win at Wigan

Posted Friday, December 30, 2022 by PA

Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray was refusing to get carried away despite seeing his side move up to fourth in the Sky Bet Championship after winning 4-1 at Wigan.

The sides were level at the break, after Wigan’s Will Keane had cancelled out Ellis Simms’ opener.

But three goals in the last 25 minutes from Ross Stewart (penalty), Patrick Roberts and Amad Diallo were enough to propel Sunderland into the play-off mix.

“We’re competing, and the target for this club is still to stay in this league, and to try and compete around mid-table,” Mowbray said.

“That might be the case come the end of the season, depending on how the squad survives the rigours of the campaign.

“At the moment, we’re not dreaming of anything else, the fans can dream of course, because we’re in the mix at the moment with loads and loads of other good clubs.

“Lose two games, though, and all of a sudden you’re 15th. Win two games, and all of a sudden you’re fourth.

“That’s the madness of the league really, and all you can do is keep competing as best you can.

“There’s some really tough games around the corner, and some games we feel we can target as ones we have to try and win.

“We know we have to keep picking up points.”

Sunderland’s strength in depth was underlined on the hour mark when Stewart and Roberts appeared off the bench.

Within two minutes, the latter was fouled in the box by Tom Naylor, and the former stroked home from the spot.

When asked about his embarrassment of riches up top, Mowbray added: “It’s not easy to manage that.

“Because generally attacking players have egos, they all want to play and none of them want to come off!

“My job as manager is to try and incorporate them into a squad, and teach them to be humble enough to want to be part of the squad.

“I tell the players all the time that I love them all, but I can’t fit all of them into the team every single week

“Football is always about balance, and at the moment we’re managing to balance all that and keep the team competitive.”

Wigan boss Kolo Toure is still waiting for his first victory in charge, with confidence dented after successive 4-1 defeats after a similar humbling at Middlesbrough on Boxing Day.

“I feel they have been two scorelines that didn’t reflect the games we played,” he said.

“Conceding goals of course isn’t great. But trying to score goals when you are losing is part of the game, you have to go for it.

“We are not a team that, when you are losing a game, you just try to defend.

“We want to come back in games, but when you do that, you can lose 4-1 – and that is very tough to take.

“The penalty, in my opinion, was harsh, and I don’t think a team like Sunderland needed those kinds of decisions to help them.

“After that we are chasing the game, and you have to react to that.

“We want to keep attacking and score, and when you’re playing against a Sunderland side with so many attacking options, you are risking being punished.”