Recruitment errors and bad dugout calls: How Sunderland went backwards from memorable moment one year ago

"We've had some great away days this season - and this was another one," Tony Mowbray said afterwards.

"We were brave on the ball. It's nice to see so many of our young lads trying to play football the right way. We controlled the game for long periods and you can see they're enjoying it. This is a good football team with real talent. If you preach the right messages to them, then they get it."

It was arguably the goal of the season. Yes, that team effort against Reading caught more attention and garnered more retweets, starting as it did from Sunderland's own goalkeeper and featuring some first-time passes of quite exquisite quality. But this effort came against far superior opposition, a team led by arguably the best out-of-possession coach in the division. It required a little more patience, a little more belief, but no less quality.

For those watching on behind the goal, who probably felt the push for the play-offs was ending after West Brom scored a first-half penalty, it was one of the highlights of the campaign and a memory to be treasured for many years yet. After the drab defeat to Millwall and as Sunderland's campaign fizzles out into mid-table obscurity, it's also impossible not to wonder: What happened here? Sunderland won again at West Brom just over a week ago, true enough - but they were aided significantly by a red card and had taken a very different approach up until that point. Given the evidence on show in 2024, the Black Cats seem a long way off reproducing this level of performance in possession.

Of course, time often makes us view things with a little more nostalgia than they might merit. Sunderland produced an exceptional run of form to reach the play-offs but they also very much relied on others slipping up to get there, and that exhilarating win at The Hawthorns came not too long after a challenging run in which they won just one in nine. It was a thrilling team to watch but it was not a perfect one, with the challenge of playing without Ross Stewart as pertinent then as it was now. It's also true to say that rewatching that goal underlines some of the bad luck Sunderland have undoubtedly had both across this campaign and more specifically in the last couple of months under Mike Dodds. Dennis Cirkin, the heartbeat of that win and the unexpected score of that tremendous brace, has barely featured since the opening weeks of the campaign. Aji Alese, the most obvious contender to replicate his role, has also endured a season badly impacted by fitness issues. That has left a major hole in the team that has not been easy to fill, both in defence but arguably even more so in attack. Dodds has also been without a fully fit Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts at the same for just about the entirety of his latest stint in charge, which has had an understandably significant impact on Sunderland's attacking output. Sunderland in the second half of 2022/23 also had Amad: An absolute smash hit of a loan signing and a player whose otherworldly form in that period was never going to be easily replaced.

Sunderland's decline is in large part self-inflicted nevertheless - a story of a year of indifferent decisions in their squad building and a failed succession in the dugout. Trai Hume has been an excellent performer at right back across the course of this campaign but Lynden Gooch, who assisted Cirkin's first goal, would have offered much during this recent downturn in terms of his tenacity and versatility. Alex Pritchard's disappointing spell at Birmingham City so far adds some context to Sunderland's decision not to offer him a similarly lengthy deal to the one on offer at St Andrews, but the reality is his consistency and ease in possession has been missed since January. While it's true that Sunderland's youth-based policy is the very reason they were able to produce football and results like this one, there has been a lack of balance of the side of late and whatever you think of the decision to move on players such as Gooch and Pritchard, where there is no debate is that as of yet those brought in to replace them are yet to hit their levels of consistency.

It's also the case, and perhaps we would not have fully appreciated this at the time, that both Edouard Michut and Joe Gelhardt haven't yet been replaced as they needed to be. Gelhardt by his own admission found playing up front on his own over the course of his loan spell a real challenge, one he wasn't always able to get to grips with. But what he lacked in physicality and experience he did somewhat negate with his technical ability, allowing him to bounce off the likes of Clarke and Amad.

Put simply, none of Sunderland's summer striker signings have contributed as consistently as he did over that spell. Michut's return to PSG became inevitable as post-season talks revealed a gap between the two parties' financial expectations, while the player himself is understood to have wanted a deeper and more prominent role in Sunderland's set up, a big shift from the number eight role the Black Cats felt him most suited to in the physical and high-tempo environment of the Championship.

Understandable, though frustrating that one of the recruits who best settled in the division and a new environment didn't go on to build from that platform. Perhaps some cause for optimism can be taken from his development over the course of the campaign, a sign that perhaps those who have had a slow start on Wearside could yet find their feet and begin to show their talent on a more consistent basis.

The odd epilogue to this win was of course that Mowbray's future would suddenly become the subject of intense speculation, with Italian coach Francesco Farioli linked to the role in the week that followed. Mowbray's relationship with the club hierarchy never truly recovered from that rift, making his departure in December inevitable to a large extent. Upheaval in the dugout has not only left a young squad without an experienced motivator to lean on in a difficult period, but has seemingly led to a more cautious tactical approach.

The lessons ahead of the summer rebuild are fairly clear in that Sunderland need to add more depth and more quality to their group, and probably a little more experience if Corry Evans and Bradley Dack do depart as widely expected. Perhaps it also serves as a reminder that they also need to bring the fun back into following Sunderland. Losing that has been every bit as disappointing as seeing results decline in the second half of this campaign.