Tony Mowbray 'disappointed' despite Sunderland proving their mettle at Watford

Tony Mowbray believes Sunderland were unfortunate to only get a draw at Watford despite falling behind twice.

Just a few months ago there was two levels between Watford and Sunderland, with the former in the Premier League and the Black Cats languishing in League One.

However, goals from Aji Alese and Jewison Bennette earned a 2-2 draw for Sunderland at Vicarage Road to underline how well they have taken to Championship football – and Mowbray believes his side should have had even more.

“To be honest the lads are disappointed with some of the decisions,” Mowbray said. “They felt that maybe the Jack Clarke goal was maybe onside, that there was maybe a penalty in both halves, but that's okay.

“Our substitutions made an impact again. Whatever the game, I can feel our threat on the transition. If we pick the first pass and Roberts squares the opponent up, you feel the threat.

“Sometimes you can have a team where you play nice stuff but don't feel a threat, that's not us. You could feel that today even though we knew they could hurt us. We'll take it, we had some pretty good chances.

“It was a game we could have taken three points from but I'd have to say that Watford, you can feel their threat, the quality, speed, size. You could feel that they had the Premier League footballers on the pitch and yet we found a way.

“You look today, there's only Danny Batth and Aji Alese above 6ft. That made every set piece a concern, and we did give too many cheap ones away. We'll take these two results and move forward, with a break to rest up and try to get a centre-forward on the pitch.”