Mike Dodds feels Sunderland youngster Tommy Watson now has a level of consistency to his game that he lacked earlier in the season, which is why he was included on the bench at Vicarage Road.

The winger has impressed for the Black Cats' U18s and U21s side this season, leaving many supporters clamouring for him to be involved in the First-Team before the end of the campaign.

Although it's important not to view Watson as the answer to Sunderland's problems this season, Dodds has hinted he could be in line for his first appearance of the campaign against Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the campaign.

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The 18-year-old came off the bench in Sunderland's 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town last season, but injuries have interrupted his current campaign.

“I felt that when I watched Tommy Watson for the U21s earlier in the week that week that he deserved an opportunity to be in and around the squad,” Dodds said.

“He's been training with us lately and will do so again next week, so we'll see how he does then.

"Tommy is making progress, he was one of the strong performances against Liverpool in that U21s game. I'd spoken to him about, I thought he'd performed really well for the U18s and so logically, the next step for him was to perform consistently well in the U21s.

"He performed well on Monday - that level of consistency has not always been there as much as we would like. He's a good player, a talented boy and one that we've just got to keep working with as a club. Hopefully he can go on that similar trajectory to some of the academy boys that we have here."

Watson has been a key part of Sunderland's superb end to the U21s Premier League 2 campaign, where they'll now compete in the end-of-season play-offs as well as well as welcome European sides to Eppleton and the Stadium of Light after qualifying for the Premier League International Cup.