IT says much for Sunderland's progression and the external view on Tony Mowbray's team that they need to face challenges such as the one presented by Reading at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

The Royals, Paul Ince was happy to admit, set out to "nullify" the Black Cats, to silence the supporters and frustrate those on the pitch and in the stands.

Such is life at the top end of the Championship. It's very much a compliment for Sunderland, though in the midst of battle it's hard to see it like that. The focus in such games has to be on battling against the frustration that inevitably sets in.

The Stadium of Light "unrest" that Paul Ince sensed at half-time was viewed as success in the away dressing room, but come full-time it was the home dressing room that was buoyant.

Sunderland are a lovely team to watch but the Championship doesn't reward style alone. Second tier success also depends on character, resilience and an ability to deal with the different challenges posed. And in the weeks since the impressive home win over Middlesbrough, the Black Cats have passed two big - and ugly - tests, proving in the process that there's much more to this young side than technical talent.

Sunderland could have gone under after falling behind at Millwall last week, but instead dug deep to salvage a crucial point. And they could easily have allowed frustration to get the better of them on Saturday as Reading set out to stifle and played for time.

And yet they hung in there, kept probing and eventually got what they deserved thanks to the brilliant left foot of Patrick Roberts, the best player on the pitch.

And so, eventually, the team that wanted to play football got the better of the team that wanted to frustrate - though Mowbray knows only too well that Sunderland will face this type of challenge again in the promotion run-in.

"I've found it [to be an opposition tactic] since I've been here, to try and slow it down, disengage the crowd, take time over goal kicks and free kicks," said the Sunderland boss.

"There's no rules to say you have to play a certain way. And yet in our dressing room, we talk about playing fast, pressing, winning tackles and getting the crowd involved. So why wouldn't they do the opposite? There's nothing in the rules that says you can't.

"Paul is a winner and he has that fire in his belly - I knew his team were going to come and be really tough to break down."

Had Sunderland not managed to find a way through, Mowbray might not have been as understanding. He does, however, think more needs to be done in the battle against time-wasting.

"I genuinely feel that the timing aspect of it needs taking out of the hands of the officials," he said.

"I don't know how you'd do it because it would be a pretty strange job. At some stage it needs to be better than a fourth official guessing how long the substitutes took and how many injuries there were. I said it the other night after Fulham, when they put four minutes up when there had been 10 subs and four goals in the second half, the physio was on twice. How? It's guessing and there needs to be someone else who decides."

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That's a conversation for another day. For now, Sunderland's focus turns to QPR and continuing their pursuit of the play-offs. The Reading win lifted the Black Cats to within a point and a place of the top six. The head coach is understandably keen to manage expectations but there's no doubt his side are very much involved in the promotion race.

And with players like Roberts working his magic, you'd back them to stick around between now and May. The first half on Saturday was a grind, Sunderland's only two efforts coming from Roberts free-kicks that were headed over.

Amad was unusually quiet and it was a tough home debut for Leeds United loanee Joe Gelhardt. But that's the beauty of this Sunderland team, they're not relying on one individual but instead have several matchwinners to turn to. This time, it was Roberts.

The former Manchester City man tormented Reading in the reverse fixture and took Saturday's game by the scruff of the neck after the break. He teed up Alese for one chance, Hume for another and twice went close himself, forcing a good save out of Joe Lumley before flashing a strike just over.

Mowbray turned to his bench, with Amad, Gelhardt and Clarke all making way. Jewison Bennette was introduced and Isaac Lihadji came on for his debut.

"It was a bit of gamble bringing Lihadji on because he still doesn't speak a word of English - I had to make sure he was going to play on the right wing!," laughed Mowbray.

It was down the right that Sunderland finally broke through, Roberts playing a quick one-two with Hume before pouncing on a defensive error to lash home. And 84 minutes of frustration disappeared.