Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray has this brilliant verdict on his game changing youngsters at Watford

The Black Cats looked as if they could be heading for a spirited defeat when Luke O’Nien scored an own goal early in the second half against a powerful Watford side.

Mowbray turned to his bench and Amad Diallo, Leon Dajaku, Jay Matete, Abdoullah Ba and Jewison Bennette all made a major impression.

The Costa Rican capped a remarkable passage of play with an excellent late equaliser for his side.

"If they hadn't done it in training I wouldn't have put them on,” Mowbray said.

“You have to earn my trust as a football manager, and in training every day they've done that. They're positive, direct, play with a smile on the face. They all want to do extra work.

“They're young kids with a mission and a goal to play in the English leagues and you have to give them the opportunity, you can't keep knocking them back and leaving them on the bench.

“They showed everyone, all those fans in a red-and-white shirt behind that goal, that these young kids could be something good going forward.

“It's exciting, I wouldn't put them on the pitch if I didn't think they could impact it and they are doing that.

“I have to mention Jay Matete, a young kid who came from Fleetwood Town, who looked really assured and powerful. Abdoullah Ba is very talented. You could look at it and say it's a bench of young kids, but the reality is they are coming off and making a difference.

“We'll see the season unfolds and they have to force their way in on a regular basis.”

Though Watford were significantly stronger than Reading had been in midweek, Mowbray felt his side were worthy of a point and reflected on a good return from two tough away games.

“We'll take the four points,” Mowbray said.

“To be honest the lads are disappointed with some of the decisions, they felt that maybe the Jack Clarke goal was maybe onside, that there was maybe a penalty in both halves, but that's OK.

“Our substitutions made an impact again. Whatever the game, I can feel our threat on the transition. If we pick the first pass and Roberts squares the opponent up, you feel the threat.

“Sometimes you can have a team where you play nice stuff but don't feel a threat, that's not us. You could feel that today even though we knew they could hurt us. We'll take it, we had some pretty good chances.

“It was a game we could have taken three points from but I'd have to say that Watford, you can feel their threat, the quality, speed, size. You could feel that they had the Premier League footballers on the pitch and yet we found a way.

“You look today, there's only Danny Batth and Aji Alese above 6ft. That made every set piece a concern, and we did give too many cheap ones away. We'll take these two results and move forward, with a break to rest up and try to get a centre-forward on the pitch.”