As the rain lashed down at a near-deserted Bloomfield Road, it was put to Tony Mowbray that seven points out of nine over the Christmas and New Year period was a perfectly acceptable return. It was fair comment.
You would have to go back exactly a century to 1922-23 to find a season where Sunderland won three league games between Boxing Day and New Year's Day - and even then, in the days of two points for a win, they only collected six points for their troubles.
So Mowbray could have been forgiven for accepting the compliment. But it is a sign of the growing confidence on Wearside that instead he spoke of 'frustration' at dropping two points against Blackpool, calling it an 'opportunity missed', and talking of the need to take such opportunities if his team is to 'put down a marker'.
