Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray was left bemoaning his side’s lack of a cutting edge following their 2-1 defeat to the Blues at the Stadium of Light.

One-time Town skipper and coach Mowbray’s side began the game on top but the Blues grew into the match and went 2-0 up through Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst before the home side staged a late rally, despite having been reduced to 10 men when Trai Hume was dismissed, with Dan Neil pulling a goal back.

“I think we respect that they're a decent team, they're well structured with good rotations,” Mowbray said. “They're confident and won a lot of games last season.

“For the first 15 minutes I think it was one-way traffic and then they worked their way into it.

“I think days like today, it's about cutting edge. I don't want to keep banging the drum but I do think we need more options at the top end of the pitch and I know the club are working really hard to do that.

“I just saw Kevin Phillips on the telly there and if you had him up front today, I think we win the game comfortably.

“That's football and we have to roll with it. Ipswich worked really hard and dug in. We put a great effort in, we just fell a little bit short.

“I think we're going to get stronger. If I sit here and think, seven weeks down the line we could have Ross Stewart playing down the middle, Bradley Dack behind him with [Jack] Clarke, [Patrick] Roberts, it starts to look pretty formidable with players then to come off the bench. I think you then score more than the one goal we did today.

“I think there was enough there today to say that we're going to be fine, we're working hard, the crowd were with us - they can see that the team are giving everything they've got.

“We feel a little bit hard done by with the sending off but the officials are being put in an almost impossible position at the moment. We'll have to get on with it and see how that irons out over the next few months.”

Photo: Matchday Images

muhrensleftfoot added 21:57 - Aug 6 Youre a top man Mogga and if we manage to finish above you we’ll be in the playoffs at the very least. Immense result for us today
12

dirtydingusmagee added 22:07 - Aug 6 Mogga has not had things easy as a manager, but he is a top bloke and im sure that is echoed by most Town fans. It was a tough game today and other teams will find it hard against them .
10

Suffolkboy added 22:10 - Aug 6 As ever a good man , good leader and full of honesty and integrity — old school ; epitomises how we remember ITFC — as well as what we’re aiming for again ! COYB
4

KiwiTractor added 22:11 - Aug 6 As per above, top bloke. Don't mind if you guys finish 2nd, behind us
4

simontruebluefrost added 22:13 - Aug 6 Always respect a manager who sums up their teams performance without criticising the opposition.
4

ArnieM added 22:17 - Aug 6 Tip bloke Mogga for sure. But we grew into the game and had we taken our gilt edged chances we could have been 3-0 up and out of sight ….. oh, and then there’s our stonewall penalty, not given! Very good 3 pts when we weren’t playing at OUR full capacity. Both teams top 6 finish.
2

Gogs added 22:45 - Aug 6 Top man. I noticed on BBC he also appeared to bemoan the ridiculous 15 minutes injury time. Refreshingly honest from a man who’s team was pushing hard for an equaliser
4

Europablue added 23:14 - Aug 6 We felt quite hard done by on the sending-off! It was like we had a man less somehow.
0

Europablue added 23:19 - Aug 6 Gogs This added time is unworkable for all sorts of reasons. It just makes the matches so much longer to watch and 90 minutes is enough. It's a case of the idea being wrong, but the sentiment is right. I'd much prefer them cracking down on time-wasting with yellow cards so we actually play a reasonable amount of the match in the normal allocated time. Football is not supposed to be 90 minutes of total action, the clock is not stopped every time the ball goes out of play or someone takes a few extra seconds on a throw-in.

4

JimInGreensboro added 02:31 - Aug 7 The answer to the time wasting is to stop the clock on stoppages of play. There’d be no reason to delay since the clock would be stopped and there’d be no arbitrary added time, either. Just a proper 90 minutes.
3

rodney76 added 03:27 - Aug 7 He's right. We had what Sunderland did not ... a cutting edge. Even under the cosh in the first half we carved decent openings far better than Sunderland managed with all their pressing. It was men against boys at first, but the boys looked more dangerous. I don't share other's view of Sunderland being that strong and see them as none other than mid-table, unless their fully strength side, that he mentioned materialises and they become a threat to the scoreline. We did defend well throughout though.

1

irishtim added 08:36 - Aug 7 Top Mam Tony. This added time kills my Acca's at bookies lol.
0

gosblue added 08:45 - Aug 7 Stop the time wasting. 10 seconds to take a throw-in or it’s a foul throw. 30 seconds for a goal-kick or a corner or it gets turned over. Stop the argey-bargey in the box by awarding free-kicks/penalties even before the ball is in play. Take a free-kick when you are ready not when the ref decides the defence is ready. If they are not 10 yards when you take it, the free-kick moves forwards 10 yards. Kick-off 1 minute after a goal whether the scoring team are ready or not. What happened to players going off the pitch for treatment. Footballers do what they think they can get away with and most time wasting involves the ref one away or another.

2

Bramidan added 11:01 - Aug 7 He said one of the goals was a deflection. Failed to mention we hit the bar from a delightful chip, imagine the press if a premiership “star” had tried that? How was that not a penalty? No where near the ball and took the man out. Also failed to acknowledge that we could have had 3 more, great goal line clearance by their defender and we spurned two break away goals when it looked easier for the player in possession to play a square pass. Yes the first 15/20 minutes they were all over us but some of that was not Sunderland’s play we made some poor decisions and gave the ball away in dangerous positions. We grew into the game, a great confidence booster and the players will realise there is a gulf between the 1st Division and Championship. I have tried not to be too biased!

3

DocMartyn added 12:41 - Aug 7 As he says, with the players they have to come back/in, I'm glad we played them at their place when we did....
1

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls