Tony Mowbray hails Niall Huggins magic & ‘amazing’ Sunderland duo after Watford win
TONY Mowbray told of his delight for Niall Huggins after the Sunderland defender – who has endured a rotten couple of years with injuries – scored his first ever career goal to set the Black Cats on their way to a 2-0 victory over Watford.
The 22-year-old only played eight games across the last two seasons after suffering a series of injury setbacks, but he looks to have now put those problems behind him, has enjoyed an impressive run in Sunderland’s side in the early stages of this campaign and scored a stunning goal to break the deadlock against Watford, before Abdoullah Ba wrapped up the points after the break.
Mowbray said: “I’m delighted for Niall, he’s had a tough time with injury in my time here. There have been some really good moments in there for him as well, I can think of Birmingham away last year when he performed very well.
“We can see in training how well he travels with the ball, he weaves in and out of people easily and you saw that for the goal. We did huff and puff a bit in the first half against a strong, powerful team but we got the job done.
“We needed that big of magic, usually it’s Clarke or Roberts but tonight it was Niall.
“I’m really pleased for him, I genuinely felt he struggled with the mental side of it with injury after injury. I think he’s broken through that now, he’s pretty robust and he’s ready to go. It’s real competition for us, and that’s great.”
A moment that will live long in the memory & impressive recall in Sunderland ratings
Sunderland 2-0 Watford: Unlikely hero on comfortable night against 10-man Hornets
Sunderland are fourth in the Championship after their sixth win in eight games and their third victory in four on home turf since the opening day defeat to Ipswich Town.
Despite Watford’s dreadful form – the Hornets have only won once since the opening day and haven’t picked up three points on the road since January – Mowbray says the visitors are a better side than their results suggest and was thrilled with how his team managed the challenge and the game.
As well as namechecking the two goalscorers, Mowbray also picked out Dan Ballard and Luke O’Nien for praise.
He said: “I was really pleased with the discipline, our centre-backs were amazing. Abdoullah scoring as well, it’s good that we’re sharing the goals around the pitch.
“We just have to keep going, it was a good performance because they are a threat to any team. We watched a lot of football over recent weeks and I’m not sure the results reflected the performances and the individuals they have.
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