'He amazes me game after game' - Tony Mowbray hails Sunderland defence

While it's usually the Sunderland forwards who get the praise, Tony Mowbray says it's time the quality of the defence was acknowledged.

Michael Graham | Feb 13, 2023

'He amazes me game after game' - Tony Mowbray hails Sunderland defence /

Tony Mowbray was keen to pay tribute to his Sunderland defenders after the Championship win over Reading.

For much of the season it has been the attacking talents in the Black Cats side that have dominated the headlines, but the defence has really come to the fore in recent weeks.

The back four of Trai Hume, Dan Ballard, Danny Batth and Ajji Alese look settled and are all able to physically dominate, and Mowbray is loving their work right now.

"[We] defended well, put our head on a lot of balls,” Mowbray told safc.com after the 1-0 win over Reading. “I think Ballard and Batth have been immense.

“Trai just amazes me game after game, and Aji almost ended up playing centre forward at the end! They're all amazing,

“Luke O'Nien who's probably been our most consistent player all season finds himself on the bench because of a recent suspension.

“It's great that he's able to come off the bench in a few different positions for us. So I'm happy enough."

The attacking players didn’t miss out on Mowbray’s praise entirely though. This week it was Patrick Roberts who stepped up and delivered, scoring the only goal of the game late on.

"I eulogise about Patrick Roberts,” Mowbray said, “He scored two amazing goals against Reading down there in a 3-0 win.

“He's said he's happy playing against Reading because he always scores! It didn't really matter who scored today."

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Published Feb 13, 2023

MICHAEL GRAHAM

Michael Graham is a professional sports writer with more than ten years of industry experience. After pursuing football writing by helping establish the Roker Report Sunderland AFC fansite, Michael moved to Planet Sport to cover football. Michael has since worked on many of the sports sites within the Planet Sport network, including Football365, TEAMtalk and Planet Football before leaving to join 90min. As well as football, Michael is an accomplished tennis writer and has been regularly featured on Tennishead, TennisBuzz and Tennis365. It is football that is his first love, though, with Sunderland AFC his particular passion. Contact: michael@buzzpublishing.co.uk