'Different teams, different styles, different ways of playing.' That was as close as Tony Mowbray could get to explaining how his Sunderland side could go from a 5-1 humbling at home at the hands of Stoke City to a rock-solid defensive performance and a 1-0 win at play-off rivals Norwich City in the space of a week.
The Black Cats' capitulation against the Potters the previous weekend had prompted Mowbray to apologise to the supporters, but it was his team's performance at Carrow Road that provided a more fitting response. Sunderland's gameplan had fallen apart against Stoke as they were picked off by a team that played on the transition and capitalised on their mistakes, but the approach they took against Norwich worked a treat.
Norwich try to build from the back and that meant Sunderland were able to play a high press and try to catch them out, particularly in the first half. Sunderland were without two of their most creative players in Amad and Alex Pritchard, both of whom missed out through injury, but that did not hamper them unduly.
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Abdoullah Ba's first goal in English football arrived on the quarter-hour mark, and almost immediately Joe Gelhardt missed a gilt-edged chance to double their lead, with Danny Batth also heading wide when he should have done better. Jack Clarke was outstanding throughout, Patrick Roberts worked as hard as he has in a Sunderland shirt, while Dan Neil and Edouard Michut were excellent in central midfield.
Sunderland had to dig deep and defend in the second half in the face of heavy Norwich pressure, but for all their possession the Canaries struggled to carve out clear-cut chances with the Black Cats' back four of Batth, Dan Ballard, Trai Hume, and Luke O'Nien, putting their bodies on the line when necessary to protect Anthony Patterson's goal and ultimately their clean sheet. It was a hard-fought and deserved win which ended a run of three successive defeats for Sunderland, and a period which had seen them slide into midtable after collecting just a single point from four outings.
But if ever there was a man with both feet planted firmly on the ground, it is Mowbray. While this win rekindled Sunderland's play-off hopes and ensured that their challenge would extend into the final ten games of the season, Mowbray was talking survival.
"I'm not sitting here thinking 'oh, we can get in the play-offs' - what I know is that we are not looking over our shoulder and worrying that we are going to get dragged into a relegation scrap," said the head coach, as he faced the media after the match.
Mowbray's comments should not be seen as negative or downbeat, rather as a form of expectation management. Sunderland have spent much of the season in and around the top six, but Mowbray has repeatedly said there is no expectation from the club hierarchy that the Black Cats must qualify for the play-offs in their first season back in the Championship.
That does not mean there is no ambition to do so - no-one would turn down a shot at reaching the Premier League - merely no pressure, given the inexperience of Sunderland's team. Sunderland's victory at Norwich lifted them to tenth in the table, five points outside the top six, but Mowbray was similarly level-headed a month ago when a 3-0 win at QPR left his side fifth, just three points away from third place.
Norwich, on the other hand, is a club where the sense of expectation is palpable as they look for a route back to the Premier League at the first attempt following relegation last season. For them, this marked the end of a five-game unbeaten and a three-match winning streak.
Different clubs, different circumstances, different expectations.
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