Tony Mowbray has recalled the day he crossed then-Sunderland boss Roy Keane - and earned a mention in the Irishman's book. Mowbray was in charge of West Bromwich Albion in March 2007 when his Baggies side was involved in a promotion battle with a clutch of clubs including Keane's Black Cats, Birmingham City, and Derby County.
And following Sunderland's 2-1 win at The Hawthorns, with Dwight Yorke and Stern John scoring the visitors' goals, Mowbray took a swipe at Keane's men implying they set up defensively and saying: "I hope Sunderland understand who was the better team. I would suggest we will finish with more points than them.
"If that's the way they play, good luck to them. I would suggest we're a better team than them and we will score more goals and win more matches.
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"If that's as good as they can play, I would be confident we will finish with more points than them this season."
Mowbray's words jarred at the time because they sounded bitter, given that the consensus among neutrals was that his side was second-best by a distance on the day. And they came back to haunt him as Sunderland ended the season as champions, while West Brom finished 12 points further back - albeit they did score more goals across the season - in fourth place and went on to lose the play-off final against Derby.
Mowbray's take stuck in Keane's mind, and he referred to it in his 2014 book The Second Half saying: "...I found out that Tony Mowbray, the West Brom manager, had been talking cr** after the game, as managers do. He was going, 'We were the better team and if we keep playing like thatwe'll be all right. We played better than Sunderland.'
"I felt he was quite dismissive of us, and me. I was annoyed about that, because we'd deserved the win; we'd played well."
But as Mowbray, now in charge of Sunderland, prepares to face West Brom at the Stadium of Light on Monday night, he has explained his remarks and insists he bears no ill-will towards Keane. "On the day, I was the manager of West Brom and after a defeat I was trying to give my team belief and confidence," said Mowbray.
"What did I say - 'if that's the best they've got, we'll finish above them' - or something like that. Roy didn't like the fact I was commenting on his team.
"Is it mind games? I was trying to say to my team, 'listen, we're better than them, I could feel it on the pitch and yet we lost'.
"Roy took offence and I think someone said he put it in his book. I've got nothing against Roy.
"I love Roy Keane! I say I love him, but I don't really know him.
One of my best mates, Gary Pallister [who played alongside Mowbray at Middlesbrough and Keane at Manchester United], knows him very well and I watch Roy with his punditry and I think he likes to say things that he believes in. It seems to me that he has a real high value-set.
"He lives in a world where he expects the best and everybody to work as hard as he does."
After missing out on promotion in 2006-07, Mowbray went on to win the Championship with West Brom the following season.
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