Tony Mowbray put Pierre Ekwah's costly late mistake down to 'naivety' as an injury-time penalty denied Sunderland victory against Hull City. Substitute Ekwah conceded the 95th minute spot-kick for a rash challenge on Regan Slater just inside the box, with Ozan Tufan keeping a cool head to convert and level up a wild game at 4-4 at the Stadium of Light.
The midfielder's foul came with referee Keith Stroud poised to blow the final whistle, but instead Tufan's penalty proved to be the final kick of a match that had twice seen the Black Cats come from behind to lead. Mowbray could not hide his disappointment when he faced the media after the match, and said Ekwah had made a poor decision stemming from inexperience.
But in Ekwah's defence, the 21-year-old January addition from West Ham has played just 175 minutes of senior football and only made the first senior start of his career the previous week at Burnley. "Pierre is a lad who is 21 and he went from Chelsea to West Ham but he never played a man's football match before coming here, he only made his first start last weekend against Burnley," said Mowbray.
READ MORE: Sunderland gain ground but miss opportunity as last two kicks prove so costly against Hull City
"He's a young boy and it's a learning curve. You have to learn when to tackle, when not to tackle.
"What are you doing putting a foot in? This is men's football and people are going to take advantage of a situation. If you hang out a soft leg, somebody is going to go over it.
"Last night we all suffered from a last-kick penalty when a more experienced player would have stood up [and not made the tackle], I'm pretty sure. Hopefully he takes that into the rest of his career and knows how painful it is, making poor decisions like he did.
"It's very disappointing to concede a 95th minute penalty when time is just about up. You just head out that long throw-in, boot it up the pitch and the referee is going to blow his whistle.
"The fourth official said there were 15 seconds left before he took the throw-in. It's just naivety, I think.
"An experienced team wouldn't do that, we'd win and be sat here with three points, thinking 'we're only four points from the play-offs'."
As it was, the draw left Sunderland in 11th place, six points outside the play-off places, having trimmed that gap by a point following the Good Friday slate of fixtures. Sunderland had fallen behind to a Tufan goal early on at the Stadium of Light, before quickfire goals from Joe Gelhardt and Amad turned things round midway through the first period.
Allahyar levelled things up almost immediately, before Slater put the visitors in from midway through the second half. But Amad scored from the penalty spot, and then Jack Clarke put Sunderland 4-3 in front ten minutes from time, before the late penalty gave Hull a deserved a point.
Sunderland's Championship campaign continues on Monday at relegation-threatened Cardiff City.
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