TONY Mowbray described Sunderland as "dull" in an honest assessment of the Reading performance, but was delighted his side dug deep and found a way to win.

Sunderland looked like they were going to have to settle for a frustrating 0-0 draw against the struggling Royals before Patrick Roberts struck late on to move the Black Cats to within a point and a place of the top six.

On the back of the midweek FA Cup replay against Fulham, Mowbray sensed fatigue in his players but felt the hosts still deserved all three points.

Sunderland struggled to break down organised Reading in a poor first half but were much improved after the break and created a string of openings before Roberts struck on 84 minutes, pouncing on a Baba Rahman mistake.

Mowbray said: "I didn't want to come in here and say it was a tired performance, but if I'm honest, I felt brains were a bit dull today.

"We knew what to expect from Reading and knew it would be tough to get through them, and yet I felt the team was a bit dull.

"There's a few moaning about the surface, and yet we found a way, let's put the points in the bag, we won't over-analyse the performance but we have to be a bit braver, a bit better with the ball, a bit tighter."

Mowbray continued: "In the first half we struggled, we were too slow and didn't get through the lines. But I sit here with three points in the bag. I've just seen the table. We'll just keep going.

"I can't say we were really good at this or that, but we kept a clean sheet against a team that can give you problems. I look at their results, they had a 2-2 against Watford, to keep a clean sheet was really good and concentration levels behind the ball was good.

"The young players are on a journey and are learning and together they found a way."

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Against a Reading side that headed for the Stadium of Light winless in five games, Mowbray was keen to guard against complacency, which he doesn't believe was the cause of the first half struggle.

He said: "The Millwall game was hugely intense then the emotional drain of playing a Premier League side. To go out there where the players think they're going to win, it was difficult to get to a level where they know it was a massive game.

"The danger was we got beat 1-0 today because we didn't turn up and they scored from a set-play and we weren't good enough, but thankfully we found a way"