Tony Mowbray hails impact of Sunderland pair Luke O’Nien and Dennis Cirkin

Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray paid tribute to Luke O’Nien and two-goal Dennis Cirkin after a 2-1 win at his old club West Brom put his side back into the Sky Bet Championship play-off zone.

Centre-back O’Nien, 28, arrived at the team’s hotel late following the birth of his second child, before conceding the penalty that Albion led from.

Left-back Cirkin, 21, scored an unlikely first senior brace in the second half after Sunderland trailed to John Swift’s 45th-minute spot-kick.

“O’Nien is an amazing human being and unique footballer,” said Mowbray.

“He sets up his own businesses, he has his own podcast, he talks about developing young people into leaders.

“He’s having discussions with me talking about pre-season and ‘what are the non-negotiables going to be, gaffer?’

“I’m thinking ‘Luke, you just concentrate on passing it to one of our players and winning a few headers!’

“I thought it was a really soft penalty (on Swift) – I didn’t see a lot of contact until the body was just about on the floor.”

Mowbray added: “The plan initially for Luke was to leave at 5.30am this morning and arrive for 8.30am, have breakfast with the team and play.

“It was the first night with a new baby but all credit to him – less than a day after his child was born he was playing, it’s amazing.”

Cirkin popped up in opposition territory twice to make it three goals in as many games.

“Dennis is a really powerful, aggressive guy – you just need to keep pushing him to believe in himself to go and do it,” said Mowbray.

“He’s undoubtedly got Premier League qualities – he’s a powerful unit and he’ll nick goals.

“He was playing left centre half of a three so I don’t know why he was in the box!

“Credit to the bravery of the team in that he played it forward and kept going and joined in.”

West Brom head coach Carlos Corberan admitted Sunderland were the more clinical team.

“In football, what happens in the box makes the difference. The game was won by the team more clinical in the box,” said Corberan.

“The start of our game was very good, and the last 10 minutes of the first half was very good too.

“From minute 15-35 they controlled the game better. We arrived at half-time winning the game.

“In the second half we competed much better than them.
“We have different styles, but I thought we created more chances but we couldn’t finish better.

“We had three or four opportunities to score but didn’t. I didn’t see my team give up, I saw them going for more.”

Swift gave Albion the lead on the stroke of half-time after O’Nien brought him down.

The forward calmly rolled the spot kick low down the middle, comfortably beating Anthony Patterson, who dived left.

Cirkin – on his 50th league start – headed Sunderland level on 51 after Lynden Gooch crossed from the right.

Albion, who might have had another two penalties on another day, had the ball in the net when Okay Yokuslu smashed home a volley but the assistant’s flag had gone up after the ball went out of play.

Cirkin, 21, grabbed an 84th-minute winner when he controlled and finished neatly after substitutes Edouard Michut and Alex Pritchard combined on the left.