Dan Neil admits his first Championship goal will hold 'bittersweet' memories after Sunderland's second half capitulation against Burnley. Neil scored after 20 minutes to put his side 2-0 in front after Amad Diallo had opened the scoring, as the Black Cats stunned the Clarets in the first half at the Stadium of Light.
But it was a different story in the second period with Sunderland unable to maintain their intensity levels as promotion favourites Burnley came out fired up and dominated the remainder of the game. The Clarets drew level before the hour, completed the turnaround 20 minutes from the end, and then made it 4-2 right at the death.
With centre-forwards Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms still on the sidelines due to injury, Sunderland have found it tough to score goals but Neil has at least begun to chip in. "Obviously when you're two strikers go down you're looking for other players to contribute with goals and I have been gutted so far that I haven't been able to get on the scoresheet," said the academy graduate.
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"It's a bit of a bittersweet moment to get on the scoresheet. Obviously I'm delighted to get my first goal of the season but the way we lost that game kind of takes the gloss off it.
"I think in all the games we are getting into good areas but don't really have that killer instinct in the box that those two [Stewart and Simms] bring. At the end of the day we have to find ways to score goals and we have.
"There have been a few nil-nils and blanks but in the main we have scored goals. On Saturday it was at the other end which caused us a problem."
The absence of six-footers Stewart and Simms is also causing Sunderland a defensive problem at set-pieces, while injuries to physically imposing defenders such as Dan Ballard and Aji Alese has only made matters worse. Neil said: "I think set pieces [are a problem] at both ends. You saw that on Saturday [when Burnley's first goal came from a corner] and against Blackburn [in midweek] it was two set piece goals.
"It's tough because we generally do have quite a small team and technical players. We are getting into really good areas but we don't have that killer instinct where they know where the ball is going to drop, like a Ross or an Ellis.
"We can't really do much about that and have to find a way to get points on the board."
While Sunderland's focus will inevitably be on the way they let their lead slip, the counterpoint is that they were playing a Burnley team who were two divisions above them last season and who are among the promotion favourites this term. "I would say it was the toughest [of the season]," Neil said of that second half.
"I think the first game of the season was a tough one against Coventry. All teams have spells in games, it was just that on Saturday we didn't deal with it.
"They've got quality players that have just come down from the Premier League and unfortunately today just didn't deal with it and adapt to their changes. I think the first half was really good and being 2-0 up after 20 minutes I felt we played really well throughout that half.
"I just feel like in the second half we didn't really have that clarity as a team in what we were doing. I just felt as if half of the team were pressing high and half of the team were dropping off.
"I don't think we really got it together in that second half and we got punished for it."
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