TONY MOWBRAY last night reflected on a “miraculous” day that saw Sunderland clinch a play-off place in the final 45 minutes of the Championship.

With the Black Cats drawing at the half-time interval of their game at Preston, and Millwall boasting a two-goal lead over Blackburn Rovers, there appeared to be little chance of the Black Cats scrambling into the top six.

However, Sunderland turned on the style in the second half at Deepdale, claiming a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Jack Clarke, and Millwall collapsed spectacularly at The Den, eventually losing 4-3.

As a result, the Black Cats finished in sixth position, setting up a two-legged play-off semi-final against Luton Town, with the first leg taking place at the Stadium of Light on Saturday evening.

“I didn’t really want to hear that somebody was winning or losing,” said Mowbray, after leading the celebrations in front of 6,000 euphoric travelling fans. “It was just a case of winning our game, then what was going to be was going to be.

“But we’re there now. Miraculously, we’ve done it. I’m not saying that we’ve warranted it because there are some big clubs in this league, and if you’re Blackburn or Millwall, I’m sure you’re devastated.

“But hopefully we’ve got a bit of momentum and hopefully we’ll have some choices in terms of the selection of the team. It’s nine games now since we’ve been beaten, so we’re going in with some real momentum. Let’s see how it goes.”

Sunderland’s second-half showing more than merited a place in the play-offs, with the Black Cats sweeping Preston aside with a flurry of three goals in the space of 11 second-half minutes. Mowbray’s bold half-time change helped alter the course of the game, with the Sunderland boss replacing the injured Dennis Cirkin with Pritchard and switching to a three-man backline that enabled Clarke and Patrick Roberts to tear up and down their respective touchlines as wing-backs.

“I genuinely believed we could win here,” said Mowbray. “With total respect to Preston, who have sorted out their home record, I thought we could win. If you think of us going away and winning at Norwich and West Brom, then we’ve been pretty good away from home.

“I always felt that we could come here and control the game. I always believe that we’ve got attacking players at the top end of the pitch that are really talented footballers. If we can get the ball to them around the edge of the box, then they can score.”

Sunderland have had to overcome a series of challenges just to thrust themselves into the play-off equation, so Mowbray always felt a late twist was possible.

“We’ve got no central defenders and our main striker has been out for two-thirds of the season,” he said. “But I genuinely felt we could win the game, and then it was just a case of waiting for results from elsewhere.”