Tony Mowbray believes Sunderland's solidity on the road can help them extend their play-off push when they visit rivals West Bromwich Albion this weekend. The Black Cats are ninth in the Championship table following the midweek round of fixtures, and sit two points outside the top six - although that is likely to change before Sunderland face the Baggies on Sunday lunchtime, with with the majority of teams playing tomorrow.
Sunderland's 1-1 draw against relegation-threatened Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night was two points dropped at home, when a third successive win would have lifted Mowbray's men into a play-off position. But they are still very much in the race with three games to go, along with Millwall, Blackburn, West Brom, Coventry, Norwich, and Preston.
Sunderland have kept clean sheets away from home in each of their last three roadtrips, winning by a single goal at Norwich and Cardiff, and holding league leaders Burnley to a draw, and Mowbray says if his team can do so again, they will cause West Brom real problems. "If we can be really solid as we were in the last couple of away games - we won at Norwich, won at Cardiff, kept a clean sheet at Burnley - we can find the spaces to play in and give teams lots of problems on the road," said Mowbray, who spent two-and-a-half years in charge at West Brom in the late-2000s.
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"There's no fear of going to West Brom, a club I know very, very well. A stadium and a pitch I know very well, too. We'll be well prepared and hopefully we can go there and find a way to get three points."
Sunderland will have defender Dennis Cirkin available again this weekend after he missed the game against Huddersfield due to suspension. And Mowbray is hoping that on-loan Paris St Germain midfielder Edouard Michut will have recovered from the back injury that saw him miss out against Huddersfield, and that he will be fit to play.
Danny Batth limped off with an injury against the Terriers but there is no news as yet on his fitness.
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