THE under-stated celebration probably said it all. After picking out the bottom corner to put Sunderland on course to take another step towards Wembley, Duncan Watmore merely turned away and barely broke into a smile after a small fist pump to the air.

While satisfied he had just found the net for the first time in approaching three years, he did not feel it was the time to be overjoyed, even though he had every right to after a depressing few years on the injury front.

Watmore has made massive progress in recent weeks, and his goalscoring appearance in the quarter-final of the Checkatrade trophy against Manchester City’s Under-21s was his tenth outing of the season.

He only made his comeback after a year out in the same competition at the start of December, so to have ended a wait of 1,011 days without scoring because of his two cruciate knee ligament injuries must have felt nice.

“It was probably a bit of joy and a bit of relief,” said Watmore, whose last goal before this week was in April 2016.

“When you miss that many games through injury there’s not much you can do to add to your goals tally so it’s nice when you get back to score. I really enjoyed the moment but it was important we won and we have to keep it all in perspective and move on.”

Watmore has started three of Sunderland’s Checkatrade Trophy fixtures so to be now looking forward to a semi-final shoot-out against Portsmouth, Bury or Bristol Rovers for the right to appear at Wembley excites everyone.

Watmore said: “It’s something we definitely want to give the fans but we still have to win another game and it will be a tough game because the other team will be saying exactly the same thing.

“We’re both one game from Wembley so we can’t get complacent and think about it yet. We’ve got to get the job done and hopefully give the fans that opportunity to go to Wembley. I’ve never played there so on a personal level I’d love to get there.”

Given the extensive lay-offs he has had to endure, playing at the home of English football and in front of a huge crowd in the Checkatrade Trophy would be a sweet way to finish his comeback campaign – which could also end in promotion.

Watmore said: “It’s been really good for me and the manager’s been really clear that it’s an opportunity for me to get some minutes, which is brilliant and I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a competition I’ve never been involved in before and I’ve really enjoyed.

“It’s always the case that cup competitions get talked down in the early stages, but when Wembley comes into sight it’s a different situation. That’s just the way it is, it’s strange, but Wembley has that appeal and it’s something we’re all very excited about.

“It’s obviously been a pretty miserable couple of years personally with my injury and the relegations, and it’s been a dark couple of years, but I’m looking forward and the opportunities we have in the next three or four months are something that as a footballer you’ve got to be excited about.”

Sunderland manager Jack Ross, who has no fixtures until the visit of Wimbledon on February 2, will spend the rest of the month focusing mainly on transfers and contracts.

He is looking at Middlesbrough midfielder Grant Leadbitter and Wigan striker Will Grigg, while leading scorer Josh Maja is on the verge of a £3.5m move to Bordeaux. There is still negotiating to be done about the terms of the deal, although it looks set for him to be sold this month.

But Watmore will not be thinking too much about that and is satisfied Sunderland can have this mini-break in a positive frame of mind after four draws from five matches in League One.

He said: “I think it was important we did won on Tuesday. In the past couple of games we’ve probably done enough to win but haven’t got over the line.When we come back it’s a good group of lads and everyone knows the job at hand so we just need to get back to winning ways.

“It’s a pretty relentless league with the amount of games we play and some of the lads have been playing most of those minutes so they could definitely do with a break.”