Two Up, Two Down: Ups and downs from Sunderland’s eight goal thriller!

Gav says...

Dan Neil

In an otherwise crazy game filled with crazy performances, Dan Neil stood out as someone who was able to really express himself with a dominant midfield performance, in a good battle against some experienced internationals in Seri and Tufan.

When he plays like that you can really understand why he's so highly rated - I'd like to see him string a number of performances together in that vein between now and the end of the season. He got stuck in, his passing and dribbling was crisp, and he played some really important forward passes. Very good!

Patto concedes four... but plays brilliantly

I don't think we can really blame Anthony Patterson for any of the goals we conceded. His all-round performance was immense and he made three or four vital saves that stopped Hull from scoring even more - one of the best saves he made unfortunately led to a Hull goal when the ball deflected into the path of one of their players.

And yes, his kicking isn't great but I'm not too concerned about that when he's making crucial stops. Just a shame he wasn't able to get his hand to the penalty at the end.

Game management

It's something that we've been terrible at since Evans went down injured, but our game management again here was poor. We bombed on in search of a fifth when sitting tight and slowing things down would have helped, and we can't just blame that on youth because some of the experienced lads were just as involved.

Ekwah's tackle was shite, but given his inexperience and lack of starts I'm not really surprised that it happened. Hopefully we just continue to learn from these disappointments...

Another smoke bomb

Some of our fans do it too so I'm not sat here claiming we don't, but it was disappointing to see an orange smoke bomb from the Hull end thrown down from the stands after one of their goals.

Luckily it hit the bottom few rows of the North Stand upper, but imagine it went over the edge and hit someone below? It's a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt or worse, killed, by objects being thrown from the away end. At what point will something be done about it?

Photo by Ian horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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Andrew Smithson says...

Good foundations

It was great to see attention centre around the Foundation of Light before kick off on their charity day. The facilities and staff at the Beacon are fantastic, and the kids had a great time pre-match having a look around and taking part in some of the activities that were put on.

No matter what happens on the pitch, the club will always have a vital role to play in the community and the FoL is right at the forefront of that.

The turnaround

This was a breathless game with lots of superb moments and some really good performances and moves, but that spell when we came from 1-0 down was right up there in terms of entertainment.

We went from a superb Anthony Patterson stop to two goals in the blink of an eye and had the ground rocking - when Sunderland click they are fantastic.

The peg back

Having gone ahead in such exciting fashion it was a real blow to see Hull City respond just as quickly - the match was very open and at times resembled a basketball game, but had we gone into half time 2-1 up the flow may have changed.

The neutrals were loving it no doubt, but I'd have gladly taken a dull second half if it meant we saw out the win.

Leaky home

I'd need to see the goals back as they seemed to happen quite quickly, but there's been a few times now where we've shipped too many at home. Hull's finishing was excellent, but for the Lads to work so hard and score four yet still not earn three points is very hard to take.

Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images

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Joseph Tulip says...

Amad's return

The Manchester United loanee was arguably our most potent attacking force on his return to the starting lineup, and his really did show his class in key moments.

His two goals aside, Amad created a superb opportunity out of nothing with two sublime keep-ups in the centre circle which enabled him to turn his man before picking out Jack Clarke with a cutting pass. Sadly Clarke was unable to convert as a fifth goal would have put the game to bed.

Goals galore

We weren't at out best today but demonstrated once again how much of a threat we can be going forward. To think we can score four goals at home with Alex Pritchard on the bench and Ross Stewart, among others out injured, is testament to the quality we have at our disposal.

False start

This was a really strange game. The unusual kick of time, the low sun, the gloomy sky and perhaps even our red shorts all contributed to a slightly surreal feel to the afternoon, certainly from my perspective.

But I feel that after such a well organised, resolute performance at Burnley, we were somewhat different yesterday.

It was a surprise to see Pritchard left out after leading our press at Burnley, and I felt that we didn't really press at all against Hull, perhaps until after half time when we upped the tempo.

Senior pros looked tired

The likes of Batth, Gooch and O'Nien rightly took the plaudits at Burnley but yesterday they looked fatigued. There were gaps in our defence which aren't usually there and we lost our shape at times.

Photo by Ian horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

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