Tony Mowbray admitted he was relieved when Dennis Cirkin made the breakthrough at Cardiff City after fearing Sunderland's lack of cutting edge could cost them. The Black Cats had dominated a one-sided first half at the Cardiff City Stadium but had no goals to show for their efforts.
But all that changed on the hour when a free-kick from Alex Pritchard was kept out by a combination of post and goalkeeper Ryan Allsop, and defender Cirkin reacted first to apply the finish from close range. And while Sunderland deserved to win by a wider margin, that single goal proved to be enough to secure all three points as the Black Cats defended doggedly in the latter stages to keep a clean sheet against the relegation strugglers.
"We moved the ball around the pitch but we just lacked a bit of cutting edge - a bit of ruthlessness in the box, really, somebody who makes their living from scoring goals is probably what's missing at the moment," said Mowbray of that first half performance. "We knew we'd have to move the ball well because they have some physicality in their team, they're fighting for their lives and we knew they'd be pretty direct into their strikers.
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"We had to keep the game alive and not have lots of dead-balls and corners and free-kicks coming into our box because it would be dangerous and difficult, as the last 20 minutes showed. Generally, we got into the final third well in the first half but we just didn't have the cutting edge that would have made the game a bit more comfortable for us."
Mowbray opted to use a hybrid system which saw his team play with a back four when defending and a back three when they were in possession - which was most of the time - and of his team's defensive display he added: "I thought Danny Batth made first contact really well, Trai Hume showed fantastic athleticism and spring, so yeah, I was happy with how we managed to see it out. It's never easy to play against teams who load the box in the last 20 minutes - even the central defenders are joining in - and they are putting the ball in there.
"We tried to defend in a back four but play out with a back three, with [Lynden] Gooch playing really high on the right like a winger but then when we were out of possession he would drop back in and Amad would flatten off onto the right-hand side. But when we had the ball we played with real width with Jack Clarke and Goochy and tried to overload the middle of the pitch which gave us the ball really and allowed us to play through them.
"They made two substitutions before half-time to try and prevent that and stop it and get man for man and get tight all over the pitch, so we had to readjust midgame which is always difficult unless you get a stoppage where you can get everybody over to tell them this is how you're going to play now.
"Generally, we saw it off alright apart from the last 20 minutes when it felt as though they were getting a lot of dead-balls, free-kicks coming into the box and then corners off the back of that and we could easily have lost a goal from one of those."
More than 2,600 Sunderland fans made the journey and Mowbray was delighted that the team delivered a victory to make their trip worthwhile. He said: "I'm really happy for the supporters. Look at the numbers that they come in, and to make such a long trip and the expense of that and the time it takes, to get the three points will make it a much nicer journey for them on the way home."
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