Mowbray drops hint as he ponders introducing more Cats youngsters

Tony Mowbray will resist the urge to make wholesale changes to his Sunderland X It his weekend, saying a punishing run of fixtures is not the right time to deploy his younger fringe players en masse.

Mowbray was in attendance as Isaac Lihadji, Abdoullah Ba, Pierre Ewkah and Jewison Bennette all starred in a 4-1 U 21 win over Stoke City on Monday, and the club's increasingly troublesome injury situation means one or two may well come into the XI at Norwich City.

M ow bray says the calibre of opposition on the immediate horizon, however, demands a certain level of experience and strength through the side.

"That time might come, but I' m not sure it' s right now when we've got four games against teams in the top six," Mowbray said. "I'm not sure that's the time to put these inexperienced players into the team, but the games after that might well be.

"I think you have to be careful that you don't damage young players by putting them into games that you need your strongest team to win because of the strengthof the opponent, and then the narrative becomes that they're not very good - I think it's better that they play in games where they can help the team, where we' re ultra-competitive.

"I'm pretty sure that the young players at our club that are just on the periphery at the moment, they will get starts at some point over the next 11 games."

Sunderland's disappointing form has checked some of the optimism on Wearside, but Mowbray insists he hasn't written off the campaign as destined to finish in mid-table, hence why he will try to keep his XI as strong as possible for now. He says the time for greater experimentation in the XI would come at the end of the campaign as he builds towards the next.

"I fully understand [the mood], yet we've picked up some injury situations and the team isn't as strong as we hoped it would be for the second half of the season.

"I fully understand [the mood], the bigger picture for us to keep the young group movingforwardtogether.Iam tryingtowingamesandthat's why players like young Jewison hasn't played as much, like Isaac [Lihadji] he's got his challengeswiththelanguage.

"They're big calls when we stillfeelwecancompeteatthe top end of the table. If the opportunity is there later in the season, we will do it."