Sunderland boss outlines the key area where Patrick Roberts and his fellow forwards can still improve

And how, while he was on the subject, did he end up in League One in the first place?

Initially the Sunderland head coach opted to keep things largely in place but it was no surprise that before long Roberts was in the side. Soon, Mowbray would be wondering aloud if there was a better footballer in the division.

Perhaps it was apt, then, that it would be Roberts who would step up to keep Sunderland's campaign alive against Watford. It was a glorious strike into the far corner, and summed up one of the key reasons why the Black Cats have been able to keep their campaign alive amid a lengthy injury list. Even though the lack of a natural striker has been a major hurdle at times, the individual quality of Roberts, of Jack Clarke and of Amad, means they always have a chance.

Mowbray, though, still sees room for improvement.

In particular, he wants to see more ruthlessness from all of his attacking players, scoring the kind of close-range goals that the team have so missed in the absence of Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms.

Injuries in his defensive ranks have meant that Mowbray has at times found himself in a similar position to Alex Neil at the start of this campaign, struggling to find the best role for Roberts when playing with wing backs rather than wingers, but the bond between the two is obvious and he will undoubtedly have a major role to play at Preston North End as Sunderland’s top-six fate is settled.

The head coach is adamant that there is still more to come, not just from Roberts, in front of goal.

"I left Patrick out the other week, played Abdoullah," Mowbray said after the draw with Watford.

"I look at them and try to assess the opposition and where their strengths are and what we might need on any given day. I think it's good to have those attacking options, and yet there's no centre-forward.

"There's a nine and a half in young Gelhardt and wide attackers. It's exciting when Clarke gets the ball. He's still only, what, 22? It's still a bit hit and miss. He's so exciting when he goes down the outside, gets to the byline and gets it over, other times he cuts inside and runs into traffic. He will get better and learn to make the right decision more often.

"We have good attacking options, people who can eliminate the opposition. We just have to get enough bodies breaking from midfield and from deep to get in the box and score goals, or the opposite winger needs to get in.

"The best example, me as a coach, the best example in the world is Manchester City. We can watch them every week on TV to see how they do that. They attack down one side, switch it to the other side and then they flood the box. The ball comes in and they score.

"I know he's moved on but Raheem Sterling left Liverpool where he'd scored six or seven a season and started scoring 20, 25. It's only watching, learning, all of us. Me at 59 years old still watching a team being coached by the world's greatest coach - when to get in the box, how to get in the box, when to keep it, when to put the ball forward, we're all learning.

"The good thing is, when you have a group of people who want to learn, it's quite rewarding."

Each of one Sunderland's coaching staff looks after the individual development plans for a number of the senior squad, and Mowbray is in charge of Roberts'.

The head coach insists that there is nothing he can teach a player of Roberts' ability when it comes to technique, but he has worked hard on his defensive positioning and will continue to push him to try and get on the scoresheet more regularly.

"He's a brilliant footballer, I love him to bits," Mowbray said.

"It seems very natural to me, his talent. In our individual development plans, Patrick is on my roster, so I have to show Patrick his clips and go through them with him.

"I don't do it every week because I'm not teaching him. I don't say to him, 'you could maybe put that on your right foot, stick it through his legs, run around him', he just does it, but I can teach him to get in at the back stick when Clarke is attacking the full back down the other side and hope that the ball flashes across the six yard box and he has a tap-in at the back stick, rather than him still stood on the wing and the ball flashes across and there's nobody in there.

"We can talk about that, show him that, keep shouting at him to get in and remind him. That's just an example of lots of different things we need to keep doing with the team, to get them in the right positions to finish off a lot of the good work the team does."

Mowbray is expecting to select from the same squad when Sunderland travel to Deepdale next week, with Dan Ballard unlikely to be fit to return from the hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined since March.