Tony Mowbray says Sunderland learnt a 'harsh lesson' as they saw two points snatched from their grasp with the last kick of the game against Hull City. The Black Cats had twice come from behind to lead against the Tigers at the Stadium of Light, only to concede an injury-time penalty which meant they ultimately had to settle for a 4-4 draw
Mowbray said his team looked like strangers in the opening 20 minutes as Hull created a raft of opportunities and took the lead through Ozan Tufan. But quickfire goals from Joe Gelhardt and Amad turned things round, only for Allahyar to level things up almost immediately.
Mowbray said: "What does 4-4 tell you? There was lots of good stuff but, as coaches, there were lots of stuff that was wrong!
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"We scored some good goals, we reacted really well after a very poor opening 20 minutes. Conceding with the last kick doesn't leave you feeling good, but I told them I was pleased they could react like they did after the first 20-30 minutes of the game when they cut us open pretty easily."
Sunderland fell behind again in the second period when Regan Slater put Hull in front, but Amad scored from the penalty spot and then Jack Clarke gave Sunderland a 4-3 lead. It looked like that would be enough, only for substitute Pierre Ekwah to concede a penalty for a foul on Slater with seconds remaining and Tufan levelled things up once more.
Sunderland had become the first team for almost a year to keep a clean sheet at Championship leaders Burnley the previous week, and yet Hull managed to score four times on Wearside. Mowbray said: "It's the Championship, isn't it?
"We went to Burnley, the best team in the league who are running away with it, and don't give them a sniff really, and then we play against Hull who find the answers to get through. I felt as though it was a slow start from a few of the players and we had words at half-time to liven them up a bit, really.
"Then I thought we were much, much, much better in the second half. We took the initiative and, apart from the chances we gave them - the poor backpass that sent the boy through, Trai making a bad decision for one of their goals, and then the penalty - I can't really remember them getting near our goal in the second half.
"At Burnley last weekend we were really solid with great defensive organisation, a good performance, but then for 20 minutes today it looked like they had never played together. Yet once we got that sorted, I thought it was a good performance.
"We were left frustrated and disappointed by the result, and yet for the neutral watching it was probably a great game. There was a lot of good stuff, but a lot of naivety in there too."
Of Ekwah's costly late foul, Mowbray added: "I've said it week-in and week-out, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I feel as though we are learning at the coalface. This team is learning as it is going along, and this was a harsh lesson today - for Pierre it is a harsh lesson not to tackle with the last kick of the game, hanging a leg out when the ball is in the box.
"Don't make any tackles in the box right at the death, just stand up and let them beat you - if they do that and score, good luck to them, but just stand up and make the guy do something rather than you hang a lazy leg out. I think he'll learn and hopefully he'll take that into the rest of his career."
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