Tony Mowbray reveals what was said in long Sunderland dressing room 'heart to heart' after defeat

Tony Mowbray says he held a long discussion with his Sunderland players after their bitterly disappointing defeat to Huddersfield Town in a bid to get their campaign back up and running.

The Black Cats dominated possession against Darren Moore's side but well short of their best, with Mowbray critical of the intensity levels after the game. The defeat made it back-to-back losses, opening up a gap of four points to the play-off places. There has been significant criticism of Mowbray and his side after the game, which he says he understands entirely given the level of performance. The head coach believes it was a sign of the inexperience in the ranks, and also opened up on the extent to which he felt his own illness in the build up to the game probably impacted the energy of his team.

Sunderland travel to Millwall on Saturday afternoon looking to get back on track and the head coach insists there is much to be positive about. He also feels his players have learned a harsh but valuable lesson from a chastening night at the Stadium of Light.

"There's lots to be positive about with this team, we can dominate matches, dominate the ball," Mowbray said.

"We have shown that we can get lots of touches in the opposition box, lots of shots on the opposition goal. And yet the crucial thing is how many times you put it in the net, and we haven't done that well enough.

"I do feel we can find a way, we always have done in my period in that time at the football club. We have to start to put the ball in the net to make the most of our domination, because generally we have been dominating. We understand that we have to get results, no one is running away from it. But there are positives, we are in control and we just have to work hard and put the ball in the net.

"We had a long chat in the dressing room after the game. In the modern game, you tend not to do that often but there are certain times where you need to air your views. In the modern game, it's not about effing and blinding - though I have just seen a clip of Neil Warnock throwing his cups of coffee, amazing. But we had to get to the bottom of it.

"I know people don't want to hear it all the time, but at this club there is an inexperience about this group of players: How to get up for these games and recognising that these games that you have to win, they have to be your cup finals. Huddersfield at home is a game we have to win because you've got Millwall away, and then West Brom and Leeds who are flying. So with total respect, a game like Wednesday has to be your cup final. But an inexperienced player might look at it, Huddersfield at home, pass the ball around, we'll be fine. Then the clock starts to tick away and they score and all of a sudden, you're trying to react. We had a long heart to heart about it. Life is difficult, never mind football, and until you've experienced you don't really know, eh? You think you know, but you don't and I'm just trying to get across how important these nights are to the players. It's cold, it's freezing, and so you're not quite as full of that adrenaline. You have to make it your cup final, and I felt we struggled with that.

"I have to take some of the blame, because as you can hear in my voice I'm still not fully recovered from my chest infection," he added. I had a really bad couple of days before the game where I was stuck in bed, so it was difficult for me to get that urgency across to the players in the build up. The first 10,15 minutes I'm thinking 'come on lads', I could feel it, I've done it 100 times and I know what you need to do. It's my job to transmit that to the players and to inspire these guys to hit the level, but it was difficult for me on this occasion. I'm feeling much better in myself now. We fell short on Wednesday and I was disappointed. 74% possession, 27 shots... generally it's enough but we weren't quite right.

"It's a collective thing, it's all of us. Of course if you're playing and you've got a number nine on your shirt, you should feel a burden, and yet these young guys - I don't want to burden them too much. They're adjusting to a massive football club. The opportunity is there for them and it's up to me to get that across to them, but the burden for scoring has to go across the whole team. I've mentioned that Dan Ballard has had some big chances, for example. It doesn't matter who scores them, we have to turn our domination into goals and victories.

"I've played in teams in the past where you go 1-0 down and you think it's finished, you're done. I've been there. This team should always believe that they can score and win, from any situation.

"I know the fans don't like getting beat and the players don't either. So that's why we had this chat, this collective chat. And Luke O'Nien has come to me and said they've had their own internal conversation as well. He's told me that they've sorted it. He reckons an unbeaten run starts now, so I'll hold him to that!"

Sunderland will likely name an unchanged squad on Saturday, though Nazariy Rusyn could return if he comes through a late fitness test.