TONY Mowbray has revealed that teenage sensation Chris Rigg will begin to train with the first team after he became Sunderland’s youngest-ever outfield player in their FA Cup win at Shrewsbury.

Rigg came off the bench aged 15 years and 203 days and helped the Black Cats score two late goals to avoid an upset against their League One opponents.

Despite not being directly involved in Ross Stewart’s leveller or Luke O’Nien’s winner, Rigg’s late cameo saw him win the corner from which Sunderland equalised.

Mowbray said: “I haven’t dug too deep into it, he’s still at school, he trains with us once or twice a week when he’s on day release.

“On the day releases now, he’ll be training with us rather than with the Under-21s or Under-18s.

“I think he’ll progress faster if he’s training and feeling the competition of a first-team level training session.

“When a young player comes up to train with the first team they all say it’s so fast, it’s much faster than playing 18s football.

“The senior players don’t generally show too much respect to young kids coming up, these kids are potentially taking their place so it is quite competitive in training.

“Young lads either sink or swim – I’m pretty sure this kid is going to swim.”

The win extended Sunderland’s unbeaten run to five matches in all competitions, although Mowbray admitted the league remains the priority with the Black Cats well-placed to make a push for the play-offs.

Mowbray added: “If we go out of the cup, we’d all be really disappointed but I wouldn’t be as disappointed as losing three points.

“Your bread and butter is ultimately how you do in the league you’re playing in, Ross and Jack (Clarke) were the only players we tried not to risk.

“It was frustrating to a concede a goal, but I think the best team on the day won the football match and we worked hard for it.”

And Mowbray also came to the defence of winger Patrick Roberts after the player was harshly booked for simulation by referee Scott Oldham.

Mowbray said: “Patrick is quite upset to be honest, he thinks it’s a stain on a character. I’ve seen a still of the picture of him going down and the Shrewsbury boy is cleaning him out, he’s kicking him right on the shin.

“I do moan about officials sometimes, only because I expect higher standards than we get some weeks. That was a disappointing decision from the official, Patrick is a bit upset about being booked for diving."