Sunderland's young talents have earned the trust of Tony Mowbray after learning quickly in a team stripped of experienced key figures. The Black Cats have seen senior men such as Corry Evans, Danny Batth, and Ross Stewart fall by the wayside through injury this season, leaving a team that in the main is made of players in their teens and early 20s along with just a couple of older heads such as Alex Pritchard (29), Luke O'Nien (28), and Lynden Gooch (27).
But Mowbray says he 'does not bat an eyelid' at turning to the bench and bringing on youngsters such as 19-year-old Abdoullah Ba, or Edouard Michut who has just turned 20, as they have proved they can handle life in the Championship. And Sunderland are already starting the likes of loanees Amad and Joe Gelhardt (both 20). along with 21-year-olds Dan Neil, Dennis Cirkin, and Trai Hume, on a regular basis.
"I'm just proud of them," said Mowbray. "Proud of the way they keep going.
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"Take Batth out of the team, take Evans out of the team, take Stewart out of the team - men, with personality, who've played hundreds of games and who know how to calm things down - there's a lack of those kind of players out on the pitch. So I have to be proud that they are learning really fast.
"The evidence of that is that I don't bat an eyelid at putting Abdoullah or Michut on the pitch, taking Dan Neil off or Joffy [Gelhardt] or whoever, because I trust all the players. In training during the week we practice when to keep it, when to go through, when to cut through teams, when to play it forward, when to get turned, and they are all learning and it's nice to watch them playing and giving teams problems."
Sunderland fought back from 2-0 down at home to Watford yesterday to earn a 2-2 draw, with Luke O'Nien bringing the Black Cats back into the game before Patrick Roberts scored a stunning equaliser in injury-time. The draw was not enough to send Sunderland back into play-off spots - they are currently two points outside the top six - but they will go to Preston on the final day of the campaign a week on Monday still in the race.
They must beat Preston to stand a chance of securing a play-off place, and even then they will be reliant on results elsewhere.
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