Sunderland boss names the unsung hero and 'most impressive thing' about crucial win at West Brom

Without Dan Ballard, without Ross Stewart, without Aji Alese and even without Ellis Simms: who was going to head the set pieces away? In his pre-match press conference he had spoken of Semi Ajayi's threat, how at Blackburn Rovers he would spend a week preparing to defend against Rotherham United's long throws when the defender was there. Invariably, it would be to no avail.

So while thrilled with the two moves that led to Sunderland's goals at West Brom Albion, and the general bravery in possession his side showed away from home against a team pushing for the top six, it was that defensive resolve that was Mowbray's starting point in assessing the win.

In particular he had praise for goalkeeping coach Alessandro Barcherini, who had done of the team's set-piece preparation and led an almost complete overhaul for the system the team usually uses for this game.

The hosts have one of the best set-piece records in the Championship but aside from one dangerous Conor Townsend header in the second half, Mowbray's side were able by and large to clear their lines.

"I think the most impressive thing is that we've denied them scoring a goal from a set play, with a total lack of physicality in our team," Mowbray said.

"We spent a lot of time on it this week and my goalkeeping coach has had sleepless nights this week, we changed our entire system. "We normally have a mix of zonal and man marking but we went total zonal today, with just one player marking Semi Ajayi. "Everybody else just filled the middle of the goal and tried to make first contact, which we did amazingly well.

"I thought they looked really good at the start of the both halves, but generally I felt we managed to control it and find the spaces to play, we were brave and probably deserved it over the course of 90 minutes."

The Black Cats have now moved into sixth, though Blackburn Rovers and West Brom will both play their game-in-hand during midweek.