Tony Mowbray spoke about the game as a whole, waxed lyrical about Jack Clarke and discussed the attacking reinforcements that are now at his disposal...
STARTED FAST
“We started really sharp and fast, we talked about that. Last away game at Blackburn we didn’t start fast at all and were under the cosh for the first 20 minutes. We talked about starting on the front foot and being aggressive, we scored early, scored again and the benefits are there. This team has got bags of energy. They can all run and get around the pitch and close down and run forward. It was important that we started with some intensity against a team who are on a downer I think, they haven’t won a game yet. Our intensity early on gave us the advantage we acquired, and then we were able to keep the ball and slow the game down when we needed to and quicken it up. We played against a team that were low on confidence, and a crowd that was ready to growl at the team and the ownership. But we’re happy with the result."
AWAY FORM
"Three goals away from home again - that’s three on the bounce, it’s a real positive. Again I talked last year about us scoring more goals away from home or getting more points away from home, and our challenge as a club and a team is to find the inventive players who at home can break down the opposition when they sit lots of men behind the ball and they waste time and slow it down. We have to find the answers to that and we’re working hard on the training ground to do it.”
CLARKE WILL TEAR YOU APART, AGAIN
“Let’s keep it going as long as we can. The kid is really confident at the moment, he’s a lovely lad and I’m just happy for him. When I was a coach at Blackburn Rovers I remember him playing for Spurs U21s and not really affecting the game. He’s come to Sunderland and he’s got fire, he’s confident, electric with the ball at his feet and can score great goals. I’m really happy for Jack that his career is on the up. We had some bids for him in the last window and if he keeps going as he is, I’m sure we’ll have more bids for him - probably twice the money they were bidding in the last window. This club felt that his value wasn’t met so we’re just delighted he’s here playing for us and damaging the opposition, and he’s a really important footballer for us.”
ATTACKING TALENT
“My teams have always tried to play forward and run forward, play forward passes. I don’t think I’ve ever coached a defensively solid team that wants to build its success on defence. That’s just how I coach footballers really, to play forward and be positive. I’ll put my arm round them and tell them how good they are, tell other people to give them the ball and let’s try and expose the weaknesses of the opposition. Jack grasps that, Patrick wants to dribble and attack people every time he gets it, Abdoullah has come in with lots of speed and power and we’ve got to find his best position. Naz is here now finding his feet in this country and in this team off the left, Adil looks a really talented clever footballer."
HEMIR
"Hemir has to come to the party and from my perspective you have to give him more opportunity I think in some games. But when we’ve got total dominance and putting the ball in the box, I watch him in training and he’s got a rocket in his right foot. And he’s 6 foot 4 so should be able to head the ball in - he did in pre-season for us and I think it’s just a process for him. Another few weeks or months, he’ll be starting up top for our team at some stage and hopefully scoring. There’s no reason moving forward we can’t play two up top in certain games. There’s lot of choices up there now and it’s really good.”
ONTO THE NEXT
“This is the Championship, they’re all tough games. This wasn’t an easy game tonight. We made it pretty comfortable by scoring the early goals but there’s no easy game, everything’s tough. I’m just so happy for the supporters that when they travel and pay their hard-earned money and get back late at night or in the morning, they’ve seen their team win and work hard and fight hard. It’s great that the supporters are enjoying watching their team score some goals and win some football matches.”
