Tony Mowbray: Sunderland lacked 'ruthlessness and cutting edge' at Cardiff

Tony Mowbray admits he felt that the lack of a striker turned what should have been a routine Sunderland into a nervy one at Cardiff.

Sunderland beat the Championship strugglers 1-0 courtesy of a Dennis Cirkin goal, although the scoreline did not reflect the dominance that Mowbray’s men enjoyed throughout the game.

The slender advantage opened the door for Cardiff to launch high balls into the Sunderland box late on and meant some dogged defending was required to see the game out.

That was something Mowbray was happy to see, although he also felt it wouldn’t have been needed had the Sunderland attack packed a bigger punch.

"We moved the ball around the pitch well in the first half, we just lacked a bit of cutting edge and ruthlessness in the box, someone who makes their living from scoring goals," Mowbray said.

"We knew we'd have to, they've got some physicality in their team and they are fighting for their lives. We knew we had to keep it alive, not have lots of dead balls coming into our box - as the last 20 minutes showed really as it was difficult. Great credit to the lads that they saw it out.

"I'm so happy for the supporters, the time and expense they will have put in for this trip - to get the three points will make it a much nicer journey heading home.

“I was happy with how we saw that out, it's never easy when teams load the box like that and yet we managed to see it out."

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