Inside one of Sunderland's very best days of the season yet - and how they did it explained

At the end of one of the season's longest journeys, one of it's most ridiculous kick-off times and at the end of what had become one of the season's longest weeks, Sunderland were alive and kicking one more.

Optimism, externally at least, had been in short supply by the time the respective teams had been shared.

The inquest into last week's collapse against Stoke City had been extensive and the verdict was that a season might just be starting to fizzle out. The squad just too thin, the gaps up front and in front of the defence just too big. Norwich City are in form, have the weight of parachute payments behind them and they were on home turf. And in addition to all of that, Tony Mowbray's injury list has grown even longer. Now Amad and Alex Pritchard have joined it, leaving this squad stretched in just about every position you could post on a tactics board: the omens weren't so good.

All of that angst and some of the sound logic that underpinned that pre-match pessimism may yet prove to be true and in fact it probably will; Sunderland's fixture list is getting no easier and the gap to the top six remains significant.

Which made this afternoon in the spring(ish) sun all the more to be relished, a welcome reminder that this is a group of players heading in the right direction even if the bumps in the road had over the last week been significant.

It was, it should be said, a game that suited Sunderland far better than the one a week previous. They were rewarded, though, for an aggressive approach that belied both their form and that of their opposition.

They did gift up the ball for the most part, but that didn't mean they had no intent. The pressing was aggressive, Mowbray noting in his pre-match preparation that Norwich have gifted more goals than any other team in the league as a result of direct errors from their defence. Norwich pose almost constant problems in possession, but they provide opportunity. Mowbray had talked regularly through the week about going away to Fulham, another game where his side had little of the ball but did an awful lot with it. He even showed them the clips of their chances in that game on the morning of this win, to remind them of their qulity.

Mowbray also made one significant tactical adjustment, having spoken in midweek about the importance of getting players around Joe Gelhardt. Abdoullah Ba was pushed up right alongside the young loanee and even at times well beyond him. In the positions where he opted not to make sweeping changes he was rewarded; Neil and Michut in particular both superb.

Sunderland created the better chances and when Norwich eventually began to dominate in the latter stages, they dug in. They made blocks, they cleared set plays, they chased and they tried, wherever possible, to pose a threat of their own. The two players Mowbray was first to single out in his post-match press conference were Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts, who had offered their best attacking threat only in spells because they had done so much running going the other way.

It was a win that took Sunderland across the 50-point barrier, a notable achievement with ten games to go given consolidation was the priority on opening day.

To still be just about in the mix ahead of this final stretch of this season is testament to the fact that for the most part, this squad has managed to belie its inexperience by matching technical ability with no little character.

We probably shouldn't be surprised that they found something just when midtable obscurity began to loom, and when it was put to Mowbray that his side had upset the odds with this win he was having absolutely none of it.

He has faced criticism for insisting that there is no expectation on his side, but that desire to protect his young squad from any additional pressure should not be mistaken for a lack of belief. He knows the flaws in this squad, and yet much of his recent frustration is precisely because he knows how good they can be at times.

"I'm happy today not because we won - I'm more interested in the performance, and these players are working hard and fighting for each other," he said.

"Someone just said to me it was a surprising result, but at Coventry we had 72% possession, more shots, more chances. Rotherham we should have won 3 or 4-1 and yet we get beat, they score two from outside the box. It happens – before that we hadn't lost an away game since October.

"I don't think it's a shock, we went to Fulham who we were sixth in the Premier League at the time and drew. We have players who work hard and who can hurt the opposition, we just haven't got that natural centre forward at this moment in time.

"This is a really young team that can win football matches. I keep telling them how good a team they are, keep playing, keep doing what you do, get the ball moving and get it out to Amad, to Roberts, Clarke. They're getting better."

Perhaps in a week's time we will be left to reflect again on some of those recent frustrations, January and strikers and all of that.

What this afternoon allowed is a little more dreaming yet. That maybe with Gooch back and hopefully Amad and Pritchard to follow, maybe there will be a few more afternoons like this before the season is out. Which, when you put logic and common sense to one side to make a journey like this one, is the whole point anyway.