Phil Smith's Sunderland analysis: Inside an encouraging night at Burnley and the revealing reactions

Scarves were aloft, arms outstretched, it was loud and it was most certainly proud. Everyone had waited to salute their young team.

They were kept waiting awhile, not because of bad manners but because of sheer fatigue. Having been forced into one last recovery run to try and snuff out a Burnley break in the dying embers of the game, most of Tony Mowbray's side sunk immediately to their knees.

A vintage display, it was not. For the neutral, a pretty drab way to spend a Friday night in front of the TV, you'd think.

For Sunderland and their supporters, though, it was 90 minutes that underpinned the sense of a bright future and the din they created was a response to the endeavour they could see so clearly. Their team never stopped, and so neither did they.

There had, understandably, been some trepidation about the road lying immediately ahead in the aftermath of that most chastening of afternoons against Stoke City.

The fixture list read Norwich City (A), Sheffield United and Luton Town (H) and then here, Burnley.

A side with genuine aspirations of breaking the second-tier points record, unbeaten on home turf this season. The last side they failed to score against at this ground? Manchester City.

A run daunting enough without an injury list growing seemingly by the game. At some stage over those four games Mowbray has been without: Ballard, Alese, Cirkin, Huggins, Evans, Embleton, Pritchard, Amad, Bennette, Stewart. Here, he had felt compelled to leave Amad and Edouard Michut on the bench after their demanding schedule over the international break, with the former not even able to complete one training session before the game.

So while five points from those four games may at face value be a fairly modest return, it represents a step forward that Sunderland have competed every step of the way, beaten only by Sheffield United and only then by a goal that should have been ruled out for offside.

They have done so by showing a different side to their game, one that speaks to the development of Mowbray's young squad and the growing maturity of many of his players.

The head coach himself has shown a touch of pragmatism along the way, recognising that it would be foolhardy to go toe-to-toe with each and everyone of those opponents with the options he currently has.

So it was here. Sunderland did not sit off in a 5-4-1, as he had pledged they wouldn't, and hope for the best. Yet they also picked their moments to press, happy for large parts to let Burnley have the ball so long as it wasn't in the final third. Above all else Vincent Kompany's excellent side want to draw you into a press so that they can find their wide players in space, and so Sunderland denied them that luxury.

The better chances fell in the main to the hosts, without a doubt, but they were nowhere near as regular as one might have expected. Sunderland got through with a mixture of good organisation and total commitment when the situation required. No one embodied that better than Lynden Gooch, who got the job done time and time against Manuel Benson down his flank. Some injury issues perhaps mean that Benson is not at this moment as sharp as he was when totally changed the game at the Stadium of Light earlier this season, but he will have faced few opponents as determined as this.

There was a little bit of frustration for Mowbray and his side, amidst all of this. The head coach had been unsurprisingly thrilled with the work ethic on show but a little disappointed that they had not been able to manufacture more shots on goal and make a little more of those moments where Burnley were caught out.

Mowbray is like all of us watching on, heartened by the obvious signs of progress and yet frustrated that a lack of depth means this group cannot yet fully realise its potential. Confident that this group of players should not fear anyone at this level, and yet realistic enough to know that there are reasons why they can't be expected to win week in, week out.

The progress of this young squad is heartening: Pierre Ekwah made his full debut here and after a sluggish start, by the second half he was beginning to get to the pace of the game and impact it positively. Midway through the second half he was replaced by Edouard Michut and a few months further down the same path as his team-mate, the youngster snapped into challenges in a way that seemed beyond him not so long ago.

This was more valuable experience for these players, another step forward for a full back like Trai Hume who increasingly looks as if he could be a future regular in a promotion push.

There is the core here of a group that could do something special, and the sense of possibility hangs in the air for Mowbray and the Sunderland support.

It's been a run of games that has raised excitement about the road ahead and yet one that has underlined the gap to the top. It's not so much about sheer quality, but in depth and resource and the level of consistency you can achieve as a result.

"I genuinely feel that if we get recruitment right in the summer, we can be a force in this league and give teams problems,” Mowbray said afterwards. That’s the most important if at Sunderland moving into a crucial window.