Tony Mowbray on recent Sunderland frustration and the legacy he hopes to leave on Wearside

Neil's return to the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon is set to be an emotive one and Mowbray says his team have to be prepared for a 'high-intensity opponent'.

Back-to-back defeats have given the contest a significant importance to Sunderland's season regardless of Neil's return, with Mowbray's side still within touching distance of the top-six spots ahead of a challenging run of fixtures.

The Sunderland head coach says those defeats have left him frustrated as his team are close to being a real Championship force, but has stressed the need for patience.

Neil's return raised the question of Mowbray's own legacy and with a wry smile, he said he hoped to leave the club ready for the next level - whenever that may be. The head coach has said previously that is keen to test himself against the coaches of the top tier again.

"For me, from my time at other football clubs, I almost create this feeling that I'm happy to work with inexperienced players, develop and make them better," he said.

"Then somewhere along the line a team sees that we aren't that far away, we have to win, and it seems as if there's a bigger investment after I leave. But that's alright, but you've heard managers say that you want to leave a club in a better place than when you find it, and I hope that's the case here. At some stage I'll be leaving but I hope it's because we're in the Premier League, doing well, with good players and a full stadium every week.

"Hopefully they just want to get to the Champions League and they think, 'maybe Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte will get us there'. I love the journey, working with young players and making them better.

"But I want to win, and it does hurt - the last week has been really tough because we wanted to go and win. I'm conscious that I don't want to come in here and make excuses when we don't win, and yet I do feel there's so much good work going on, we're so in control of some football matches, and we just can't quite put them to the sword.

"We're not far away from being a really good team in this league.

"I'm enjoying the journey at the moment, it's just pretty frustrating when we pick up some injuries to pretty key footballers and it feels a little bit light [the squad].

"Sometimes the results reflect that and we have to accept it, in my stomach burning away I get frustrated as I know the supporters and the players do - we all want it now. And yet it's a journey and as long as we're all on the same page and moving in the same direction, we have to take the defeats when they come along because we're not an experienced, established team."