Sunderland boss hails his 'team of warriors' ahead of promotion push

Tony Mowbray described Sunderland as a ‘team of warriors’ who keep on surprising him after they battled to victory at West Brom.

Sunderland had to recover from falling behind to a controversial penalty, but two second half goals from Dennis Cirkin saw them turn it around.

The win pushed Sunderland into a play-off position with just two games left, and it was enough to get even Mowbray flirting with the possibility of a promotion push.

Asked how he felt about Sunderland’s win at the Hawthorns, Mowbray said: “Immensely proud.

“We spoke before the game about their inexperience really but they were a team of warriors out there today. It felt like West Brom were putting the Harlem Globetrotters on at the end, a load of 6ft 6 players coming on!

"They are an amazing group. I said before the game they have growth in their mindsets, they all want to get better, they all want to learn. It’s a great environment to work in to be honest.

“When they come and get results, and put the work in lie they did, and have a following like they did, there’s a real chance for this football club in the next few years to get back where it wants to be.

"We’re probably a little bit ahead of schedule but let’s see where the season takes us. I’ve been playing it down because I genuinely didn’t believe we had enough experience in the team to come to places like this and win football matches, and yet they keep surprising me.

“So they’ve done amazingly well but I’m trying to calm that dressing room down a bit because we’ve got two massive games to go against two really tough teams who both have aspirations like we’ve got. Let’s just keep going, well done today for them."

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