Take the seven points this week and move on – boss
Tony Mowbray says his Sunderland side can kick on from a positive week despite the frustration of conceding from a late penalty against Bristol City.
It looked as if Jack Clarke had fired his side to another valuable three points when stoppage time began at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, but an excellent penalty from Nahki Wells secured a point for the visitors in a tight contest.
Sunderland had probably enjoyed their best spell of the game after taking the lead, controlling possession in dangerous areas for the large part.
But they were just unable to find a second goal, with City keeper Max O'Leary making solid saves.
It means Bristol City have now gone 11 games unbeaten, and Mowbray spoke with clear respect for Nigel Pearson's side after the game.
He insisted it was another good learning experience for his side, who have kept their unlikely play-off push very much alive with seven points from seven days.
"I think both teams were pretty young, pretty athletic," Mowbray said.
"We could feel their threat and we tried to organise our team to prevent the counter because that's where a lot of their goals have come from – they nick it in midfield and then break quickly with the athleticism that they have. We tried to stop that and it took a little bit away from our forward momentum, I think. But if you're overly cavalier you find yourself 2-0 down, so we lost a bit of sting.
"They had spells in the game where they gave us problems, but generally I felt we controlled it. We had a 15 to 20-minute period there [after the goal] where we were in the box for a long time.
"When Jack whacked that one in I thought we'd get over the line, but we have to accept the penalty, put the point in the bag and move on.
"If we'd said at the start of the week that we'd get seven points, including another trip to London, which was our third in 10 days, we'd have probably taken that.
"Nigel has given his young team a lot of belief and I like watching them play.
"We had our moments and another day we score another goal or two.
"They had some experienced players in key positions, we had a 19-year-old and 20-year-old in central midfield against two men, one of which has come from Leicester City in the Premier League. It's a great experience for us to play against that knowledge and experience. It was just another challenge for our young team and generally we handled it well. Other teams are allowed to attack us and have a game-plan, that's football.
"We just couldn't quite see it over the line. It's a good experience for us.
"So, let's take those seven points from this week and move on."
Sunderland travel to Rotherham United tomorrow night as they look to keep their strong form going. Rotherham were beaten 2-0 by Coventry City on Saturday afternoon to leave them just one place above the relegation zone.