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Mowbray’s half-time blast sparks Sunderland into life

By Malcolm Brown

TONY MOWBRAY was delighted with his Sunderland’s side second-half improvement, as they claimed a win over Millwall and climbed into the Championship’s top 10.

The hosts were second-best for most of the opening period at the Stadium of Light, but made it to the break on level terms thanks to some committed defending and a couple of missed opportunities from Millwall’s attackers.

Things were totally different after the break, with Amad Diallo opening the scoring eight minutes in and Alex Pritchard adding a second goal five minutes later.

Ellis Simms completed the scoring in stoppage time, tapping home after Millwall goalkeeper George Long misjudged a long clearance, and Mowbray was pleased with his side’s response after some harsh half-time words.

The Sunderland boss said: ‘I wasn’t too happy after the first half. I was honest in saying that I felt they’d come second-best in a fight. We never got any fluency in our game and they won too many second balls.

‘The lads reacted really well, and it shows the fine margins in football. I know we’ve got the quality to hurt teams, but too often in the first half Millwall came out of the challenges [with the ball]. That fine percentage switch turned the game, and the individuality we’ve got won us the game.

‘It was an important win and we have to be relatively happy with where we’re at [in the table]. We’re not happy with the first half but we’re happy with the result.’

Mowbray singled out central defender Danny Batth for praise. He said: ‘Danny needs a special mention. Against such a potent team with set plays and how many first contacts they win, it was amazing how dominant he was.

‘I think about 63 per cent of Millwall’s goals come from set plays and that shows you how important Danny was for us. You have to stand up to the [physical] challenge and then do what you’re good at. We grew into the game.’

Millwall manager Gray Rowett was understandably disappointed but he did not feel too downbeat.

Rowett said: ‘If you look at the first 45 minutes, I thought we were the better side. We were very good.

‘Sunderland have the type of players where they can get in those little pockets and they caused us problems for a 10- or 15-minute spell, but the best first-half chances fell to us.

‘Tom Bradshaw heads it over the keeper and if he just gets it another yard or so towards the corner I don’t think Danny Batth gets there.

‘If you look at the big moments, then as an away team I was quite encouraged by the display, but what you can’t do in this division is give away the first goal easily.’

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2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

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