Inside a very, very special Sunderland moment as Tony Mowbray's side take another big step forward

When it builds and it builds and it builds and then just when you begin to fear the moment might be gone, it breaks.

And then there are limbs flailing everywhere, and no one quite knows what to do. Coaches are bursting onto the pitch, goalscorers are shirtless, players are cramping up and others are having to resist the urge to burst into the away end themselves.

All this for a point that come the end of the season might be pretty much neither here nor there. These are the very best goals, the reminders that the fun is often as much in the journey as the end destination.

It's jubilation because only half an hour ago a looping header dropped agonisingly beyond Anthony Patterson and all this felt a world away. Sunderland had made a mockery of their lack of height, their lack of physicality and their lack of literally any strikers on Wednesday night but it didn't take long to realise that this afternoon was going to be very different.

Watford have underwhelmed in the opening weeks of the season but Tony Mowbray summed it up well when he said that you could just feel their threat, the intangible but very obvious Premier-Leagueness in areas of their team. The moments Joao Pedro picks up a clever pocket of space, or Keinan Davis shrugs off a challenge with concerning ease. Sunderland were not outplayed by any stretch of the imagination, at least not until the early stages of the second half, but nor were they overwhelmingly threatening themselves.

They had fought back once in the first half, responding well to a goal of top-tier quality. This was a brilliant moment in itself, bemusement before bliss. The frustration when a dangerous attack seems to fade into nothing and the half-time whistle is just seconds away, and then all of a sudden the referee is pointing at his watch and Sunderland players are running for the corner and the Watford players are throwing their arms up in the air? Somewhere, somehow the ball has gone in, it seems. No fluke, though. Aji Alese was impressive at Reading and key to the game plan here, pushing right up to the halfway line first to win headers for his otherwise slight side, and then secondly to overlap Jack Clarke.

It had worked well enough to a point but when Luke O'Nien nodded that header past his goalkeeper, the overwhelming sense was that for a tight squad this was just a game and a step too far.

The international break loomed, the absence of Stewart and Simms even larger and understandably fading fast was the energy that had powered this team to such a strong start to the season.

Sunderland were pushed deeper and deeper and though of course the goal was avoidable, it had also felt inevitable.

Mowbray had tellingly been looking to his bench in the minutes, looking for anyone who could be any kind of outlet. To hold it up or more likely, to run the channels and stretch the game that was by now being played almost entirely in Sunderland’s defensive third.

It’s Amad Diallo he turns to first up and slowly but surely, things do begin to turn. Amad sometimes drives through the middle and sometimes he drifts out right, dragging defenders with him. The final ball isn’t quite there yet but Sunderland are stirring, getting up the pitch.

Diallo drifts again and Roberts bursts inside. That leaves enough space for the cross and it’s inch-perfect; the volley from Jack Clarke even sweeter. Diallo is so pumped that he can’t see the offside flag raised behind him, and no one is there (or has the heart) to tell him. He sinks to his knees and what looked like a drab denouement is starting to become anything but. Something has unmistakably changed and Mowbray just keeps going. On they come, one inexperienced youngster after another. And they are good. You wince a bit at first because the game is becoming stretched and some of Sunderland’s most trusted campaigners are having to give way.

Mowbray admits that sometimes they have no idea what he’s saying to them. But they understand enough, and they are fearless.

Watford start to wilt and the chances start to flow. Bennette goes close, Matete has an effort blocked. Roberts has a half chance and by this point Watford don’t seem to be able to stop him gliding infield. Then Dajaku is through and surely this is the moment. It heads for the corner but it keeps going and in the end it’s agonisingly wide and maybe that was the chance.

Or not. Diallo picks up that space again, Roberts drifts inside him. A clever pass and the winger is away again. A lovely cross, Bennette takes a touch and for a second time stands still. The finish is emphatic and it’s relief and joy in equal measure. These are the very best of goals.

Sunderland keep going and they could win it, but at times their youth belies them and they almost lose it with some of the gaps they leave behind them.

This comeback wasn’t all about Sunderland, far from it, but in a way that is kind of the point. Watford were forced to protect some players whose match fitness is still building (Davis the most glaring late absentee) but that they couldn’t maintain their dominance from earlier in the half spoke to a tension in their play. They had something to lose and they started to play like it.

No one knew quite what to expect from Sunderland at the start of this season, and especially when they brought so many unproven youngsters into the fold. The pressure is off after four long years of angst.

It’s why even just a point can feel so good, better than it has felt for a long, long time.