The key Sunderland weakness that has become even more glaring - and how they plan to combat it

Alese, who has been outstanding since his introduction to the starting XI last month, has played a crucial role alongside Danny Batth in defending set pieces while Ellis Simms and Ross Stewart are absent with injury.

With no senior strikers at his disposal Mowbray has been left with few players with the height to dominate at set plays, particularly in the absence of Daniel Ballard.

As it stands, Sunderland are the only team in the Championship not to score directly from a set piece. While that statistic doesn't reflect the excellent routine that led to Dennis Cirkin's winner against Wigan Athletic last weekend, Mowbray conceded that at both ends of the pitch it is an obvious issue for his team. Swansea City and Watford have both scored against Sunderland from set plays in recent weeks but Mowbray is relieved that the damage has not been even more significant.

With Alese set for a spell on the sidelines it is a task that just became even more difficult. The return of Simms, who it is hoped will play some part against Luton Town next weekend, cannot come soon enough.

"Set plays have been difficult for us because there's only really Danny Batth and Aji who are 6ft, and now of course Aji is injured," Mowbray said.

"We don't have many players in the team who are taller than 5ft 8 and so to be honest I think the lads have done amazingly well to defend their goal so well from the opposition set plays.

"We need to keep that going.

"To score goals from set plays, it's going to have to be about clever moments. Take quick corners, free kicks, move it quickly, because it's very unlikely we're going to sling it in the box and someone is going to tower over their 6ft 5 centre-half and head it in."

Where Mowbray believes his side can do better is when the chance comes to shoot directly from set plays, a scenario where his technical players are yet to really deliver.

For the most part, though, he believes that in the games ahead they will have to again rely on ingenuity.

"We've had enough opportunity around the edge of the box, so there is definitely a frustration that the last few we've created have gone over the bar," he said.

"I would say that we've had one against Wigan, a quick free kick to Pritchard who then puts in a brilliant cross for Cirkin. That's what we're going to have to be about, moving it quickly.

"It's about the movement, finding the space in the box. We do a lot of work on them but at the moment we have to be a bit more imaginative. It's definitely something we can improve and grow, of late there hasn't been much time on the training ground for that. We can improve on that over time and we will."