Sunderland have the nucleus of a 'really good, exciting, young team', according to Tony Mowbray - and they are just a couple of ingredients short of finding a winning recipe. The Black Cats earned a point against Championship high-fliers Luton Town at the Stadium of Light yesterday to go 11th in the table and cut the gap between themselves and the play-off places to seven points.
Given that Sunderland are in their first year back in the second tier after a four-year stay in League One, and they have had to manage for two-thirds of the season without star striker Ross Stewart and the final third of the campaign without experienced skipper Corry Evans, their progress has been remarkable. Mowbray knows his squad is lacking in key areas, not least because he has no like-for-like replacement for Stewart, but rather than dwell on its shortcomings, he prefers to focus on its strengths and look ahead to the potential that could be unlocked with the right recruitment this summer and the return of players from injury.
"The team we have is what we are at the moment," said Mowbray. "We are missing certain ingredients that would make us a really good team, but we have to get on with it.
