Tony Mowbray says Sunderland gave a good account of themselves over their two games against Premier League Fulham, despite exiting the FA Cup at the fourth round stage. The Black Cats drew 1-1 against the Londoners at Craven Cottage, but lost out 3-2 in the replay on home soil.
Harry Wilson gave the visitors an early lead with sub Andreas Pereira doubling their advantage on the hour. Jack Clarke pulled one back before Layvin Kurzawa restored Fulham's two-goal advantage, and while Jewison Bennette scored right at the death it came too late for Sunderland to force an equaliser.
"I think there was an opportunity for us tonight," said Mowbray. "Even at 1-0 down, I thought we could get the next goal and they would rock and I could see us nicking it.
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"But we didn't, they got the next goal, and even though we got back into it we were always just a step behind them. I feel as though we gave a good account of ourselves over the two games.
"I think over the two games you could maybe call it an epic cup tie. We kept going tonight.
"I think we started really tentatively. We talked about being brave and playing on the front foot because their control comes from the back - I managed Tosin Adarabioyo at Blackburn Rovers and what a footballer he is with the ball at his feet.
"For ten minutes we didn't quite get the press right, adjusted it, and for the last 20 minutes or half an hour of the first half we got the crowd engaged and got on the front foot and made numerous opportunities to shoot. There's a frustration without a striker that I want them to pull the trigger a bit more, and we spoke this week about that - shoot, shoot, shoot.
"Everyone wants to pick a pass inside the box to sidefoot it into the net. That's the only frustration, because we did have a go.
"Even at 3-1, the fans stuck with the team and we got back into it again. The goals we conceded were frustrating. We don't tend to give soft goals away and yet we did tonight against a high-quality team."
With top scorer Ross Stewart ruled out for the remainder of the season and on-loan Leeds United man Joe Gelhardt cup-tied, Sunderland were left without an out-and-out striker but Mowbray opted to tweak his system and use Amad and Abdoullah Ba up front.
He said "We had a lot of balls flashing around their box, we just didn't have anyone with that clinical touch to poke it in. I think back to my first game here against Rotherham, Ross Stewart just plays between the sticks and would have been there just to poke those balls in.
"When you are playing with midfield players as your highest attackers it is really difficult to get into those goalscoring areas. And yet we had a go and scored two goals against a Premier League side.
"Tonight we kept going, the fans kept the team going, we had a go and we will take the positives into Saturday."
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