What Tony Mowbray said about Queen Elizabeth, Sunderland’s fixture postponement plus Reading and Watford

Sunderland are preparing for Wednesday’s Championship match at Reading – and Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray held his pre-match press conference today.
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Striker Ross Stewart has been ruled out for at least six weeks with a thigh injury, while defender Dennis Cirkin is also expected to miss the fixture at the Madejski Stadium.

The setbacks mean Mowbray will have to alter his side following last week’s 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough, before the weekend’s home match against Millwall was postponed.

Sunderland are then set to face Watford at Vicarage Road three days after the game at Reading.

Here’s what was said at the Academy of Light as Mowbray spoke to the media:

RECAP: Tony Mowbray press conference

Key Events

  • Sunderland are preparing for Wednesday’s Championship match at Reading.
  • Black Cats boss Tony Mowbray is set to held his pre-match press conference earlier today.
  • Sunderland are then scheduled to face Watford on Saturday.

That brings us to the end of the broadcast section of the press conference, but Mowbray has also spoken to the written press including our SAFC writer Phil Smith.

We’ll have more from the Black Cats boss, as well as build-up to Wednesday’s game, over on the SAFC section of the Echo website.

“We both scored in a play-off final at Wembley for Ipswich Town.

“He’s just a great lad, I have been in touch with him.

“He says he’s fine at the moment and is living a normal life.

“I need to speak to the club and hopefully there is something we can do.”

“Motor neurone disease is a horrible, horrible thing.”

Mowbray on replacing Ross Stewart’s goals

“I’ve talked a lot to Patrick Roberts, Alex Pritchard and Jack Clarke, these types of players who play at the top end of the pitch.

“They are very talented individuals with their ball manipulation and control of the football. They have to start adding goals and assists to their repertoire really, what they bring.

“The best example is Raheem Sterling leaving Liverpool, scoring seven, eight goals a season, and then goes to Man City and scores 25 to 30.

“It’s a mindset change really, you have to get in the six-yard box, get in between the goalposts and score all types of goals.

“The majority of your goals are going to be in the six-yard box tap-ins and if you never get into those areas you aren’t going to score the goals.

“We have to try and get those players into the box and we’ve done a lot of talking about that.

“Hopefully on matchdays we will get the rewards.”

Mowbray on extra days on the training pitch

“I think every day is a learning day around this group of players.

“You put it into context I had five and half years at my last club and the players almost felt like part of your family really.

“I keep saying nobody ever teaches you to be a dad but I have three sons and it’s a bit the same with footballers really.

“I’m not a headmaster and tell them what’s wrong and what’s right but I cajole them into what’s right and what’s wrong really. Hopefully they get the message really.

“As I said, the club wasn’t broken really when I came in. Usually you get a job where the team has lost lots of games and you think you can come in and try to fix it.

“I don’t think when I came in, the club wasn’t broken. It was important I didn’t come in and try to fix something that didn’t need fixing.”

“I think they have done exceptionally well and I don’t think anybody would have thought they would be where they are in the league because of the player they lost in John Swift, who I think is one of the best players in the Championship over the last few years, went to West Brom on a free transfer.

I think Joao is an important player for them. When I first joined Blackburn he was there on loan and is a very talented individual that they lost for a lot of last season, but he’s back fit and scoring goals.

I think Paul Ince has galvanised them and done an extremely good job. They have beaten teams like Stoke and Middlesbrough and found a way to get results.

“It’s a game we believe we can go to Reading and give them problems. We have talked a lot this week about who is going to score the goals and step up with Ross not on the pitch for a few weeks.

“We will see in these games who is going to step up and put the ball in the back of the net.”

“It doesn’t feel like a clean bill of health without your top goalscorer and Cirkin who has played fantastically well.

“We are getting on with it and I’ve found the players to be very, very receptive, they want to know information and what they have to do in every situation.

“I think the way they have applied themselves at the start of this season in the Championship. Having managed a club in Blackburn who came from League One to the Championship, it is an adjustment.”

“We have to try and make that continue.”

Mowbray on Sunderland’s plans

“I think you have to keep it routine in football.

“Our footballers played an in-house game to make sure their fitness levels, we replicated a game really so that the disruption wasn’t too big.

“Their physical output through the week was what it needs to be going into the next game so if the game is Wednesday we count it back two days going into the game.

“There has not been too much disruption for the football team because that’s the preparation that we have.

To play Reading away and then a few days later to play Watford is huge and then it looked as though that was going to be thrown out, there was a lot of talk about whether the Watford game was going to go ahead because it’s on the outskirts of North London but it looks like it will.

“We are planning and preparing to go to Reading, stay down South for a few days rather than travel back and have one day here then travel all the way back

“We are going to stay down South and train a few days and play Watford at the weekend.”

Mowbray on the weekend’s postponements

“First and foremost I was very respectful of the decisions that the powers above my head made and I think we all had to respect that.

“I think it’s very difficult to put into words, I was in front of my TV and watched like everybody else and I’m sure it’s very difficult not to get very emotional just about some of the words and some of the pictures.

“For all of us in this room I’m sure the queen was a constant in our lives. There was a sense of immortality that she was always there.

“Just to listen to normal people in the street talking and politicians there was some very touching stuff.”

In terms of team news, Ross Stewart is set to be sidelined for at least six weeks with a thigh injury.

Dennis Cirkin is also expected to miss Wednesday’s game with a hamstring injury but looks set to return after the international break.

We should get a further update from Mowbray when he speaks to the media this morning.

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