Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray has tipped Ipswich Town to be competitive in the second-tier next season.

The former Blues player and coach took over the newly-promoted Black Cats last summer and led them to a sixth-place Championship finish.

His side beat Luton 2-1 in the home leg of the play-off semi-finals, but lost 2-0 at Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night to miss out on a shot at reaching the Premier League via a Wembley final.

Speaking after that match, he said: "The league's going to be tough next year. Southampton are already down. It could be Leicester, or Everton, or Leeds United that also come down looking very, very strong.

"Coming up is Ipswich Town and Plymouth. Both of them, Ipswich especially, with 30,000 crowds, good players and a good coach, will be strong.

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"That's without mentioning the likes of West Brom, Norwich, Middlesbrough, Luton or Coventry (the latter two facing off at Wembley a week on Saturday).

"Hopefully we can have another go.

"We have to keep getting better and growing as a football club now so that our fans believe, somewhere along the line, that this club can get promoted to the Premier League."

Reflecting on defeat to Luton, Mowbray - whose job is reportedly now under threat - said: "We couldn't really get them off our backs. It's a tight environment, there's literally one yard to the touchline and then you're in the crowd. It's pretty intimidating for the players.

"They played very, very direct. They've got two huge centre forwards, they booted it up there and just pushed right in behind it with lots of bodies. It's hard to release the pressure really.

"You have to give them credit. They play to their strengths. It's not how we would ever want to play, but they finished third in the league. Lots of teams have suffered here. Congratulations to them.

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"I'm proud of how well the team has done in light of some pretty key footballers missing - not just the centre-forward who can score goals pretty freely (Ross Stewart), but also the captain (Corry Evans) who plays in the middle of the pitch and brings a level of control, while at this moment we're missing three 6ft 3in centre-halves who would have helped us tonight immensely."

Mowbray added: "The frustration is that this team is not going to be this team. There's no (Amad) Diallo next season, there's no (Joe) Gelhardt, there is a decision to be made on (Edouard) Michut. So the team changes.

"But we have to keep growing and developing what we've got and we have to add to them and find another player who has done what Diallo's done this season in adding goals and craft and quality.

"We have to keep growing so that the fans can dare to believe."