Sunderland 4-4 Hull City
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 Robert’s 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 after 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 the lead midway through the second half, Slater advanced past Trai Hume before picking his spot and hammering his attempt into the roof of Patterson’s net.
Amad grabbed his second goal of the game from the penalty spot on 73 minutes fiercely firing his spot kick into Darlow’s bottom right-hand corner after Clarke was brought down inside the area.
Darlow kept Hull on level terms, expertly getting a hand to Trai Hume’s close-range shot to deny the hosts from 10 yards out.
Sunderland scored a deserved fourth goal to retake the lead on 82 minutes. Amad again among the thick of the action picking out Roberts who squared the ball to an unmarked Clarke from six yards out. The wideman made no mistake and powerfully drilled his strike past a helpless Darlow
The visitors continued to push forward deep into stoppage time and scored a later equaliser in the dying embers of the game after 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 to level the match with the last kick of the game.
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.