Sunderland boss gives interesting insight into Abdoullah Ba's outstanding return to the XI

Ba was deployed as an attacking midfielder alongside Amad as Mowbray switched to a back three as a result of a lengthy defensive injury list, and caused the hosts constant problems.

The 19-year-old appeared to be struggling with cramp and was replaced as Sunderland went on to run out 4-1 winners, but he had more than justified his place in the side and handed his head coach with yet another very welcome selection dilemma for the weeks ahead.

"He's a really good player, we've just been working hard with his discipline in playing the position we're asking him to play," Mowbray said.

"He wants to run everywhere, to show us what he can do and sometimes he leaves his area of the pitch vacant. We want him to be more disciplined, to play his position - telling him that the ball will find him. We believe we're a team that's going to be positionally really strong [in time], so we want him to stay and wait for the ball to come into his zone.

"I think he's starting to learn and pick that up, and of course you can already see that he is very, very talented. He's so tight with the ball, agile, a goal threat.

"He's another option for us and in my mind another attacking option for us. The difficulty is getting all of these players game time but we felt this was a game for him and I think he proved that to be the right decision."

Ba will almost certainly retain his place in the matchday squad for the clash at Bloomfield Road on New Year's Day, with Alex Pritchard likely to be absent after suffering a recurrence of his recent calf injury.

Corry Evans will return to the squad after being rested against Wigan, while there remains some hope that one or both of Danny Batth and Dennis Cirkin could return to the squad and give Mowbray some much-needed defensive cover.