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.
