Tony Mowbray has taken pride in defying the odds to lead Sunderland into a Championship play-off campaign this season - but says he wants the club to be in a situation where they are promotion favourites. The Black Cats surpassed all expectations in their first season back in the second tier following promotion from League One, with Mowbray's men going far beyond the pre-season hopes of consolidation and ending up finishing sixth in the table to earn a play-off spot.
That they did so despite having the youngest squad in the division, which retained the core of the group that won promotion from League One via the play-offs, and while hampered by a catalogue of serious injuries to key players, only made their achievements all the more impressive. Sunderland eventually bowed out to Luton Town in the play-off semi-final over two legs, and it is the Hatters who will face Coventry City in today's final at Wembley with a place in the Premier League at stake.
Mowbray believes Sunderland will be back next season all the stronger for their experiences this term, and also augmented by new signings who will arrive over the summer. And Mowbray wants Sunderland to eventually build to a point where they are the team expected to win promotion.
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"As a coach, it's alright having a team that is, not so much the underdog, but that nobody expected [to be up there]," he said. "It's also alright sometimes to be the team that everybody expects [to be promoted] because you've got the best players, you've paid the most money, you've got the biggest crowds, the best stadium, so you should be getting promoted.
"Somewhere down the line, that's where we need to be."
The Black Cats' exploits last season mean there will be greater pressure next time round, but that does not faze Mowbray. He said: "I've said before that I didn't feel that promotion was the primary objective this year, it was to sustain ourselves in this division and to make sure that we weren't looking over our shoulders.
"Then with some transfer windows we need to bring in the kind of quality players that will make everybody think 'whoa, they should be getting promotion with that team'. Let's see if we can keep recruiting well.
"We're going in the right direction, we're on the right road, let's keep trying to strengthen and bring quality players in the system. We want to get to the point where the fanbase aren't just happy with nice football, they want us to get promoted and they look at the squad and the teams around us and expect us to get promoted.
"Of course that brings pressure as a head coach but somewhere down the line, that's where we need to be."
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