Tony Mowbray refused to blame Sunderland's second-half collapse against Burnley on youthful inexperience - insisting instead he just needs longer to work with his new charges. The Black Cats let a 2-0 half-time lead slip on Saturday at the Stadium of Light, with the Clarets going on to win 4-2 in a game of completely contrasting halves.
Sunderland allowed Burnley a route back into the game from a set-piece soon after the break and, from that point on, the equaliser looked to be only a matter of time, and when that went in it seemed inevitable that Burnley would go on to complete the turnaround. That led to questions over whether Sunderland's lack of experience was a factor, with their starting line-up containing seven players aged 23 or under, including four 20-year-olds, while the three substitutes brought on in the second half were all teenagers yet to make a Championship start.
But Mowbray did not feel that was a factor, adding: "I don't want to sit and make excuses. This is our football team, this is our club, it's not about the age of the players.
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"They are all learning experiences. It's about the group dealing with it, and we should have dealt with it better. I've been in football 40-odd years and I'm sure there are games I can look at where I've been 2-0 up at half-time and ended up losing. I don't think it's because they are young, I think it's because it is a new team for me and I need to keep working with them.
"Generally, we've dominated possession against a lot of teams, it hasn't been a case of us having our backs against the wall - we haven't had to do that very often in my ten games here. It was a new phase for us that we can work on in training over the next few weeks, playing a different style.
"Let's give up the ball a bit more, let's not try to pick passes, let's turn them round and let them have the ball and try nick it and break and play on the counter-attack. It's the education of a team, really."
Mowbray did admit that Sunderland need to play with more 'nous' at times. He said: "We need to play with a bit of nous against teams, really.
"There's nothing wrong with being 2-0 up and playing some long balls in behind the opposition and letting them try to get 80 yards back up the pitch through you. I feel as though it is just a learning thing for us.
"At 2-0 up, the game changes to the point where you can play on the counter-attack, but don't invite them on. You can still keep a high line and as they try to play through you, with all the men behind the ball you can just keep breaking away on them and scoring again."
Sunderland seemed to be cruising at half-time, with Burnley having barely laid a glove on them yet Mowbray said he could still feel the threat from a side that was playing Premier League football last season. "The first thing I said to them at half-time was that I could feel Burnley's threat, even when they were 2-0 down," he said.
"They've got good players. Good players jump out at you. I'm watching the game and I feel their threat. I feel the quality of quality players who don't need much space to pick the right pass. It's done now. Let's move on to the next game.
"We're all frustrated, we're all disappointed. Congratulations to Burnley but I'm hugely disappointed for the 40,000 supporters who turned up on Saturday.
"I'd like them to think that if we can keep reproducing the first half for longer spells, hopefully we have got a team that they can be proud of moving forward."
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