Alex Neil hailed Sunderland's front two as 'unbelievable' as debutant Ellis Simms scored twice and Ross Stewart netted the winner at Bristol City. The Black Cats boss paired last season's 26-goal top scorer Stewart with on-loan Everton man Simms for the first time at Ashton Gate, and Neil says theRobins' back line was 'run ragged' by the duo.
Their goals saw Sunderland earn their first win since returning to the Championship, and maintained the club's positive momentum in the early stages of the campaign. "I thought the two of them were unbelievable," said Neil.
"They absolutely ran the back three ragged all day for me. Ellis Simms scores, Ross scores, Ellis should have got another one and they had opportunities and chances throughout the game as well.
READ MORE: Bristol City 2-3 Sunderland player ratings as Ellis Simms makes a memorable debut
"I thought the two of them were an absolute handful. They were brilliant, really, really good. I thought Ellis was really strong, everything that went up to him he held the ball up and linked the game for us.
"Equally he is a rare player in that when you are that big and that strong and you can link the game, normally that comes with a lack of mobility but he is quick - really quick - and strong, and he can finish as you saw today.
"When you have all those attributes - and Ross can do all of that as well - that's impressive. Sunderland are sort of built on Niall Quinn/Kevin Phillips type thing, and they did really well with that kind of pairing, but I thought the two lads today were excellent.
"I'm not comparing them with them [Quinn and Phillips] because they are a million miles away from that, but it's that pairing where you have two lads up top."
Simms put Sunderland ahead inside the opening five minutes, but City pegged them back just five minutes later through Andreas Weimann. The Robins then went in front just after half-time through Chris Martin, only for Simms to level things up almost immediately.
And that set the stage for Stewart to score the winner with a little under 20 minutes to go. Neil was delighted with the win, but admits the two goals his side conceded left him disappointed.
He said: "The disappointing thing was the two goals we did concede. We don't ever practice offside, and for some reason we decided to try and play offside and conceded a goal from that, which was frustrating.
"And then the second goal was as soft a goal as you are likely to see at this level. We get done by a one-two, we don't get across and guard the space quick enough, and it was so weak from our point of view.
"If we do those two simple things, arguably we don't concede the goals. But in every goal that anyone scores, there are always errors leading up to it.
"Ours are easily fixable so they are not things that I worry about in terms of structure, it's not that type of problem, it's more individuals switching off and not doing their job properly. However, what you can then do is feel sorry for yourself and blame everything else, but we didn't - we rallied.
"I thought after they scored their second goal, I think you arguably saw the best of us and we really came after them at that point and we were well on top. If anything, we probably should have scored more goals in that spell.
"We got into great areas, put in good crosses, and how the keeper made the save to deny Ellis his hat-trick, I'm not quite sure but what a save! I thought we deserved to win the game.
"They had some good spells in the first half but I thought we were really dangerous. They then scored that [second] goal, and then I thought we were really dominant until probably the last eight minutes or so."
Neil is still hoping to add further signings before the transfer deadline at the end of the month, having said more than once that there are areas of his squad that need strengthening. But he had no further update on transfer progress this afternoon.
He said: "With every day that goes by, it's ticking closer to the end of the window. I'd like to think that things are getting closer and closer, but I've nothing to tell you."
READ NEXT:
- Bristol City 2-3 Sunderland match report as debutant Ellis Simms scores twice in vital win
- Sunderland's Jay Matete loan stance confirmed by Alex Neil
- Alex Neil on the lesson Sunderland learned on day one of the Championship season
- Sunderland boss Alex Neil gives fitness update on Niall Huggins and Leon Dajaku
