It is almost 20 years since Tony Mowbray got his first taste of management when he was asked to take the reins at Ipswich Town following the sacking of George Burley.

And when he agreed to take on the challenge at the Stadium of Light in September, Sunderland became the seventh club he has managed since.

Mowbray is a man of experience but has embraced new ways of doing things in the hope of making the right decisions to take the team he leads forward.

Sunderland is no different, despite the frustrations of watching Cardiff City leave Wearside with three points on Saturday courtesy of Mark Harris’ deserved opener four minutes into the second half.

And while he accepts that some decisions might be wrong, he believes he must make tough moves that fans might disagree with at times in the best interests of his players and the team.

His comments followed a question about the four changes he made to the Sunderland starting line-up for the visit of the Bluebirds, just days after a strong performance and win at Huddersfield in midweek.

“I was fearing an injury from fatigue. Every day we get gauges on players’ fatigue levels … red, amber and green,” said Mowbray.

“There are a lot of red. We are in danger of players breaking down, that’s regarding how they sleep, how much fluid they get, their intensity levels in training and how often they play. You pick a team on the back of that system we use.

“Sometimes you go into a game knowing a player is going to be jaded, but that is why you have squads.

“You pick players, and you have to trust them, that's why you have a squad rather than just 11, 12 or 13 footballers - you have 20 footballers and you have to trust all of them. You have to give people an opportunity. You have to tinker with things.”

He added: “You have to win football matches, whether you pick the same players each week. I put some fresh legs in, more youth in there and we got beat. We have to find ways to win and here we weren’t good enough.”

While striker Ellis Simms returned to the starting line-up following injury instead of Leon Dajaku, who dropped out of the match squad altogether, and Jack Clarke was introduced to the left again following suspension, the biggest risk from Mowbray was the decision to change his midfield.

Dan Neil was asked to play alongside Abdoullah Ba, making his first start, in the middle rather than play with the more experienced Corry Evans and the creative Alex Pritchard.

And Sunderland just couldn’t get to grips with Cardiff, who were hovering close to the relegation zone beforehand after losing four of their previous five matches, and the centre of the pitch was key to that.

Even though Sunderland had good chances themselves in the first half, with Perry Ng clearing Amad Diallo’s effort off the line being the best of those, it was Cardiff inflicting most of the damage to the defences on show.

The visitors should have been ahead earlier on in the 13th minute when Sheyi Ojo was brought down by Danny Batth in the area after Bailey Wright’s lazy pass went nowhere near the intended target.

Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson dived to his left and made a strong save to deny Joe Ralls’ spot-kick and Sunderland were off the hook. Still, though, Sunderland struggled to get going for the rest of the half.

Sunderland only really started to make an impact once Harris, hoping to be named in Wales’ World Cup squad this week, had turned in Mahlon Romeo’s scuffed shot soon after half-time. Why? Mainly because Mowbray had brought on Evans and Pritchard.

Mowbray said: "I thought we were better in the second half. I know we lost a goal early and maybe they (Cardiff) went into defensive mode, but we finished the last half-hour or so on the front foot trying to score a goal and yet didn't manage to find it.

“I understand when another team plays pretty well. You can’t swamp every team with what we have got - we have to get the balance right. It seems to be a consistent inconsistency.”

That is why Sunderland sit mid-table, a respectable position for a side back in the Championship after a few years’ absence, and still striving for those back-to-back wins.