Hull City deny Sunderland late on in epic eight-goal Championship thriller

Sunderland conceded a late goal to draw 4-4 against Hull City in a frantic Sky Bet Championship fixture at the Stadium of Light. 

Joe Gelhardt opened the scoring with his first goal at the Stadium of Light, Amad notched twice on his return to Tony Mowbray’s starting line-up before Jack Clarke added a late fourth for the Lads. 

Ozan Tufan scored a brace for the Tigers, his second a last-minute penalty to snatch a point. Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Reagan Slater also got on the scoresheet for the visitors. 

Sunderland started brightly and almost took the lead when Patrick Roberts’ driven cross came within inches of connecting with Joe Gelhardt’s boot with the goal gaping.  

In an end-to-end opening to the match Lynden Gooch was next to come close, the defender’s curling effort from 18 yards out clipping Karl Darlow’s far post. 

The visitors broke the deadlock on 11 minutes after some neat build-up play by Jean Michael Seri and Slater to find Tufan in space – the attacker manufactured a yard and empathically fired his shot past Anthony Patterson. 

Sunderland got themselves back on level terms on 21 minutes when Amad and Clarke combined effectively down the left. The Ivorian advanced forward and picked out Gelhardt at the back post for a simple tap-in. 

After a brilliant point-blank save by Patterson, Sunderland took the lead within a matter of seconds. Clarke and Amad linked up well again with the latter picking his spot from 12 yards out to find Darlow’s bottom left-hand corner. 

In manic first half, the visitors drew level on 25 minutes, Sayyadmanesh poking the ball home from close range after Dimitrios Pelkas’ shot was initially saved by Patterson. 

Hull regained their lead on 66 minutes when Slater held off Trai Hume and narrowly kept the ball in play on the byline before cutting inside and hammering his shot into the roof of Patterson’s net.

Amad grabbed his second goal from the penalty spot on 73 minutes to bring the Black Cats level, fiercely firing his spot kick into Darlow’s bottom right-hand corner after Clarke was brought down inside the area. 

Darlow kept his side in the tie moments later, expertly getting a hand to push Trai Hume’s close-range attempt off his near post before being cleared to safety by Alfie Jones.

Sunderland scored a deserved fourth goal to retake the lead on 82 minutes. Amad was again among the thick of the action this time advancing forward and finding Roberts who squared the ball to an unmarked Clarke inside the visitor’s box.

The wideman made no mistake and finished off a well-worked team goal, expertly side-footing his strike past a helpless Darlow from six yards out.

The visitors continued to push forward deep into stoppage time and scored a late equaliser in the dying embers of the game when referee Keith Stroud adjudged Pierre Ekwah to have fouled Slater inside the Sunderland box. 

Tufan stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards out, grabbing his second goal and drawing Hull City level on 98 minutes with the last kick of a thrilling encounter.

The Black Cats are back in action on Easter Monday when they travel to the Welsh capital to face Cardiff City in the Sky Bet Championship. 

Sunderland XI: Patterson, Gooch, Batth ©, O’Nien, Hume, Neil, Michut (Ekwah 74’), Roberts, Amad, Clarke, Gelhardt (Pritchard 74’)

Subs not used: Bass, Cirkin, Ba, Lihadji, Anderson.

Hull City XI: Darlow, Coyle © (Elder 64’), Greaves, Jones, Tufan, Sayyadmanesh (Ebiowei 86’), McLoughlin, Traore, Pelkas (Docherty 58’), Seri (Longman 86’), Slater.

Subs not used: Ingram, Woods, Longman, Simons.