The deeper into the season Sunderland's play-off challenge extends, the more Tony Mowbray plays it down. 'There're no aspirations to do anything this season,' he said after his side's 3-0 win at QPR at Loftus Road, 'there's nobody putting pressure on me to keep in the play-off race'.
Sunderland's latest victory saw them climb to fifth place in the Championship table - above sides such as Norwich City, Watford, and West Bromwich Albion, who certainly do have promotion aspirations - as the season entered its final third. And, much as Mowbray prefers to keep a lid on expectations, the longer his side continues to hover and in and around the top six, the more supporters' hope will rise.
Ahead of this game, Mowbray had spoken of the need to rest some of his players after admitting they had looked a little fatigued in the weekend win at Reading. When asked about his side's promotion prospects, he had talked about squad depth and quality and the likelihood that, if Sunderland ultimately fall short, it could be the lack of experienced older heads that costs them, now that skipper Corry Evans has been ruled out for the remainder of the season as has top scorer Ross Stewart.
READ MORE: Tony Mowbray backs Joe Gelhardt to get goals for Sunderland after going close against QPR
At QPR, he brought Luke O'Nien, Abdoullah Ba, and Alex Pritchard into his starting XI, and gave Dan Neil, Edouard Michut, and Amad a breather. But there was little, if any, drop off in quality.
QPR were on a horrendous run of form, winless in nine games in all competitions going into the match and with just one solitary victory in 16, but they still made life difficult for Sunderland in the opening 20 minutes. However, once Sunderland had come to terms with things they soon began to carve out openings with Joe Gelhardt sending a chance into the sidenetting and both O'Nien and Patrick Roberts bringing saves out of keeper Seny Dieng.
The breakthrough came ten minutes before half-time when O'Nien was on hand to stab home from close range after Dieng had parried but failed to hold a Dan Ballard header from a Pritchard corner. The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with QPR starting well and Chris Martin missed a good chance to equalise.
Then came a pivotal moment in the match, as Aji Alese was penalised for handball inside the area. Ilias Chair stpped up to take the penalty but Anthony Patterson made a brilliant save with his feet to preserve Sunderland's lead, and you could feel the sense of deflation from the home fans as they began to fear the worst.
Gelhardt hit the crossbar in the final 15 minutes before Jack Clarke effectively killed off the game with a cool finish eight minutes from time. Amad, who had come on as a sub, could have got on the scoresheet when he ran through one-on-one with Dieng, but the keeper won that duel.
Roberts set up Clarke for the third in injury-time, with both of his goals having come at the School End in front of the 2,500 travelling fans. Mowbray said afterwards that he felt the 3-0 scoreline was perhaps a little 'harsh' on QPR and he had a point, but it did not feel that way to the fans who had made the trip from the North East.
Neil Critchley's side was booed off, and the under-pressure QPR boss was left to make his case for why he feels he is still the right man for the job as QPR slipped to 17th in the table. Meanwhile Sunderland's bandwagon keeps on rolling - just don't expect Mowbray to admit it.
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