Tony Mowbray on Reading time-wasting: 'It seems to be a tactic against us'

Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray said visiting teams time-wasting at the Stadium of Light is now very common, but he can at least understand it.

Reading were the latest visitors to Wearside and right from the first minute Paul Ince’s side were taking an age to take throw-ins and free kicks and took every opportunity to slow the game down to a crawl.

It was something the fans certainly noticed and Mowbray noticed it too, but he felt he didn’t really have any right to criticise.

"There's no rule in football that says you can't do that,” Mowbray said when asked about Reading’s time-wasting tactics.

"There's no rule to say you have to play a certain way, so it's okay. They probably weren't happy with the eulogising of one of the goals we scored down there - it was shown a million times on TV that week and they probably wanted to put the record straight.

"Paul is a winner and I knew his team was going to come here and be really hard to break down. Since I've been here, I've found it seems to be a tactic when teams come to the Stadium of Light.

"Slow the game down, disengage the crowd, take your time on goal kicks, take your time on free-kicks, take the crowd out of the game.

"Whereas in our dressing room we are talking about making tackles, press, counter-press, close down, because you'll get as big a cheer for a tackle as you will for a great shot because the crowd is engaged.

"So why wouldn't they [away teams] do the opposite?"

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