Dan Neil felt his early yellow card against Huddersfield Town 'killed' his game as it left him walking a tightrope for more than three-quarters of the match. The academy graduate was making his 100th appearance for Sunderland but could not mark the occasion with a win, as the Black Cats were held to a 1-1 draw by the relegation strugglers at the Stadium of Light.
Neil was playing as Sunderland's sole defensive midfielder, but he had to watch his step after picking up a booking inside the opening 15 minutes for a foul on Brahima Diarra. And he admits that had an effect on the team for the remainder of the game as it meant he had to be extra careful when putting in tackles to break up Huddersfield attacks.
Sunderland went in front in the first half through Joe Gelhardt, but Josh Koroma levelled on the hour with boss Tony Mowbray complaining afterwards that the Town man was allowed to travel too far without a challenge. "I think the role I was playing with Pritch [Alex Pritchard] and Pat [Patrick Roberts] ahead of us, I was that one who has to break the play up and put in tackles and win duels," said Neil.
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"That early yellow card did kill us a little bit, I felt like I couldn't put myself about because I didn't want to put us down to ten men and leave the team kind of hanging. I think defensively it did cause me individually, and probably the team a few problems because that's my role to stop counter attacks."
Sunderland had chances to put the game beyond the visitors before half-time, but they could not finish them off. Neil said: "I think we lacked a bit of cutting edge, we had a few decent chances but I don't think it was enough to win the game.
"Give credit to Huddersfield I thought they were very good on the break, lots of athleticism in the team and they caused us a few problems especially on counter-attacks. The positive is that we didn't get beat, but obviously the negative is that we couldn't quite get over the line and get the three points."
The draw meant Sunderland moved up one place to eighth in the table and to within a single point of the play-off places, although that could all change this evening with several of their rivals for a top six place in action. The Black Cats are next in action on Sunday lunchtime, when they take on fellow play-off contenders West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
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