Tony Mowbray confesses failure following Sunderland’s defeat to Cardiff.
TONY MOWBRAY is keen to find the “killer touch” that will allow Sunderland to perform even better at the Stadium of Light.
Cardiff City, who lined up to defend and make things difficult from the start, startled Wearside with an 87th-minute victory yesterday, leaving the Black Cats manager unhappy.
In an attacking sense, Bluebirds defender Mark McGuinness was the match-winner, but he was also part of a tenacious backline that dug deep to hold Sunderland at bay.
When Mowbray’s daring teenagers did break through, they encountered former Sunderland academy goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, who had previously played for Newcastle.
Sunderland’s second home defeat in a row after an outstanding start to the season.
Mowbray wants to find a way to win more games on Wearside, knowing that they have back-to-back home games against Watford and Middlesbrough following their trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Friday.
“Our home record, we discussed last year,” he remarked. We win more away games because we need to find that lethal touch against opponents that put ten players behind the ball for 90 minutes here.
“We just didn’t get into the right positions to finish it.” We just couldn’t find an answer since Cardiff was so tight. We need to figure out how to divide teams.
“Hopefully I’m humble enough to say congratulations to them, they made it difficult for us, and best of luck to them.” There were many positives for our team, and scoring with eight guys inside the box is difficult.
“Sometimes you have to shoot from 25 yards away, and they might go in.” You don’t score if you don’t shoot. It is not always possible to score the ideal goal.”
Sunderland had six shots on goal and 16 missed chances in a game in which they controlled 66% of the ball. But, crucially, McGuinness scored from Cardiff’s second shot on goal.
“We shouldn’t be too disappointed,” Mowbray remarked, “because they gave it their all.” We discovered that last year when teams came to defend here, getting guys behind the ball and being very resilient.
“We need to find that extra level of quality.” We felt like we dominated the game, and a 1-0 win would have been nice. Cardiff didn’t look like they were going to win the game, but they did. It’s quite frustrating for us.”
