Tony Mowbray says Sunderland looked 'dull' against Reading - but praised his young side for finding a way to win against Reading. The Black Cats were well below their usual standards, although that was partly due to Reading's gameplan which appeared to centre on frustrating Mowbray's men by timewasting at every turn.
The first half was particularly poor, but Sunderland improved after the break and eventually Patrick Roberts made the breakthrough and scored the only goal of the game five minutes from time which was enough to lift the Wearsiders to seventh place in the table, leaving them a point outside the play-off places. "I'm wary of saying it felt like a tired performance, but if I'm being honest it seemed that their brains were a bit dull today," said Mowbray.
"We talked about how we need to play against a team like Reading - Paul [Ince, the Reading manager] was going to set up differently, he knew of our threats - so we knew it was going to be tough to get through them. I felt we were just a bit dull. The team felt a bit dull.
