Tony Mowbray was delighted to see Joe Gelhardt get off the mark for Sunderland at Rotherham - even though his goal proved nothing more than a consolation. With top scorer Ross Stewart ruled out for the remainder of the season, the pressure has been on January loan signing from Leeds United Gelhardt to step into his shoes and score goals, and all the more so since he is the only out-and-out centre-forward available to Mowbray in the final two-and-a-half months of the campaign.
Mowbray has been unshakeable in his belief that the 20-year-old would score goals, and his faith proved justified at the New York Stadium as Gelhardt opened his account in his fifth outing for the club. And the youngster had already seen one 'goal' chalked off for offside against Rotherham, and in the final minute he another big chance to score a late leveller only to be denied by goalkeeper Viktor Johansson, as the struggling Millers held out to earn a 2-1 win.
"I think he works really hard," Mowbray said of Gelhardt. "He will score goals and he's a good footballer.
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"He's disappointed he didn't score another goal with the header after [Patrick] Roberts had flicked one into the box for him. Is it important he's got off the mark? Listen, strikers have to score goals, don't they?
"That's their job. It's what they do, although he's only a very young boy and he's being asked to play up front every game on his own. It's not easy for him, and we have to try to give him support and help him.
"He has to keep working as hard as he is, and whether he can keep doing it for the next 13 games or whatever it is, is going to be a big ask. He's only a boy who's never really played consecutive games, but we'll see. It'll be a good learning curve for him."
Overall, Sunderland were below-par against Rotherham - particularly in the first half. They fell behind to Ollie Rathbone's strike inside 20 minutes, before Shane Ferguson added a second ten minutes into the second half.
Gelhardt pulled one back just after the hour, but Sunderland could not find the equaliser they needed. Defeat saw Sunderland's five-game unbeaten run in the league come to and end and they dropped two places to eighth in the table, a point outside the play-off spots.
For Rotherham, the victory ended their five-game winless streak and they climbed one place to fifth-bottom, increasing the gap between themselves and the relegation zone to five points.
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