Sunderland's 'harsh lesson' but Tony Mowbray left 'feeling good'

Sunderland looked set to close the gap on the top six to just four points but Pierre Ekwah conceded a last gasp spot-kick and Ozan Tufan made no mistake.

Despite that late setback, Mowbray was enthused by the manner in which his Sunderland side had twice fought back from 1-0 and 3-2 down.

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He said: "I think there was lots of good stuff. As coaches, there was also a lot wrong.

"We scored some good goals. We reacted really well after a really poor opening 20 minutes. I felt good about the team at the end. "Conceding the last kick doesn't leave you feeling good but it leaves me full of confidence that they can react like they did after the first 20 or 30 minutes when they cut us open pretty easily.

"It's the Championship. We go to Burnley, the best team in the league, and don't give them a sniff of building out from the back. And then play against Hull who find the answers.

"I felt it was a slow start from a few of the players. We had words at half-time to liven up and we were much better in the second half when we took the initiative."

Hull led early on through Tufan before Sunderland stunned the Tigers with a quickfire double through Joe Gelhardt and Amad Diallo.

Allahyar Sayyadmanesh then equalised for the visitors with the third goal in four first half minutes.

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Sunderland were much the better team after the break but found themselves behind again after a Trai Hume error was punished by Regan Slater. Yet the Cats fought back again. Jack Clarke won a penalty that was despatched by Amad, before Clarke hit the net to make the score 4-3 with nine minutes to play.

Sunderland looked set to see it out, only to concede the penalty with just seconds to play.

Mowbray said: "We are learning on the coalface, we're learning as we go along. That's a harsh lesson, it's a harsh lesson for Pierre not to tackle, the last kick of the game, don't make a tackle, stand up and let them beat you."