Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC verdict: Tony Mowbray lays bare his key dilemma - so what happens next?

And for a spell, Tony Mowbray's Sunderland really did look like Tony Mowbray's Sunderland. The head coach had sent for Alex Pritchard, Bradley Dack and Patrick Roberts and with them the complexion of the contest changed almost instantaneously.

Pritchard pulled into the left-hand channel, bringing Niall Huggins up the pitch after too long hanging under diagonal passes and That meant Jack Clarke could do what Jack Clarke does: hit the byline and force openings.

Dack quickened up the pace of Sunderland's play, twice opening up the pitch with early switches that Millwall had not seen. Roberts got the ball, more often than not held it and drove the game into areas where Millwall weren't comfortable. Eventually the pressure told, Clarke felled in the box and his tenth goal of the season emphatically despatched.

In a half hour spell, Sunderland accrued 1.86 of their expected-goals tally of 1.94 - experience and composure had told. At the final whistle, it was a little difficult to know what to feel. In isolation, a point away at Millwall is never one to turn up a nose at and it was one that actually cut the gap to the top six to three points. Had you offered that position after 19 games on the eve of the season when there was no Amad, still no Ross Stewart and uncertainty hung in the air, most would have taken it.

And yet it seems clear that this Millwall side, one firmly in transition under new head coach Joe Edwards, are not quite the fearsome proposition of previous campaigns and especially not here at The Den. Not right now, anyway. It was also true that having got themselves back level, Sunderland then lapsed into a spell of sloppy play. In the end, that they left with a point owed much to the intervention of Anthony Patterson. It was also a result that meant a week of three games without a win for Sunderland. With daunting home games against West Brom and Leeds United lying in wait, there is an unmistakable sense that this is a damaging period in their campaign.

Most concerning? That they are appear no closer to solving the riddle that is threatening their undoubted progress: How do they turn their control of games into a regular stream of goals? Mowbray's gut at 55 minutes told him he had to change and a cursory look at the statistics backed him up. For all their dominance of the ball, Sunderland had at that stage registered two shots on target. Both were from the edge of the area, Dan Neil and Luke O'Nien both taking aim on their weaker foot with efforts that were outside bets at best.

Mowbray had turned back to Mason Burstow for this game because though he had hoped to give Nazariy Rusyn a similar run in the team as he had with Burstow, the Ukrainian has been sidelined with a minor groin issue. While his most likely choice in Rusyn's absence would have been to give Eliezer Mayenda another chance to make an impact, he felt it would have pushed a young striker still recovering from a major hamstring injury too far into the red zone.

Burstow started well enough and there were encouraging signs that those behind him were trying to get him into the play quicker, but after those opening exchanges Millwall's powerful defenders marshaled him out of the contest almost entirely. Later in the game, they were able to do the same with Mayenda.

For some, this seemingly perpetual struggle is a sign that Mowbray's set up is overly reliant on the individual ability of his wingers, and that the paucity of changes for the centre forwards points to a structural issue. There is something in this, Mowbray would be the first to tell you that he unashamedly tells his players to find Clarke, to find Roberts - and let them do what they do. At the moment if you can stop them, you do go some way to stopping Sunderland. What this view doesn't explain is why in the brief spells he was fit last season, Ross Stewart in a team of similar personnel looked like Phillips, Quinn and Rowell all at once.

Afterwards, The Echo asked Mowbray if it was time to revert to tried and tested and for now, go without a centre forward and trust the guile of Pritchard et al. It felt a fair question, given the evidence of the last two games. Mowbray's response was that he didn't feel he was able to do that, given the clear brief from the club hierarchy to integrate and give opportunities to the summer acquisitions.

The message he was essentially sending throughout his post-match press conference was this: I will keep playing the young players as requested, as I signed up to do and it's a challenge that I relish - but there has to be an understanding that this will make it harder for Sunderland to win Championship games. It sets up a fascinating few weeks, because some will feel that this Sunderland side is about where it should be given the focus on signing up and coming talent, many of whom need time to adjust to new surroundings. Some clearly feel Mowbray is falling short given the talent at his disposal - so what do the club hierarchy think? You suspect his comments will not have been too warmly welcomed at the top of the club, and every now and then you get glimpses of the unease that permeated the club at the end of last season.

Stepping back from the frustration and the emotion of a winless week, some clear truths are worth restating. With an average age younger than anyone in the division, Mowbray has built a side that dominates the vast majority of their Championship matches. That in their second season in the division controls games week in, week out. That according to Wyscout's expected points model, should sit third in the division if the results reflected the pattern on the game consistently. Mowbray has done this while growing five or six huge saleable assets for the club in his regular starting XI, and having pushed many others to being far closer to becoming Championship regulars who can follow the path of Hume, Neil et al. He has also done this while losing two of the dressing room's most important figures in Lynden Gooch and Danny Batth, and without the game-changing ability of Amad. Equally true is that in a far stronger Championship field this season, Sunderland approach the halfway mark with their goals for the campaign still firmly in their reach. For that reason alone, this was a point to be judged on its own merits and not against the bitter disappointment of midweek. It was not a bad one.

This was an afternoon that set at ease any fears that Sunderland were at risk of starting to unravel, even if it was also not a swaggering return to form. Leaving The Den, Mowbray's question still hung in the air. Can Sunderland find the balance between development and winning? Much of what lies ahead will depend on whether his bosses agree with this blunt assessment of the summer arrivals, talented but at this stage - for entirely understandable and to be expected reasons, not quite at the level of those who came on to rescue something to take back north.