'Harsh lessons' of Hull draw can only benefit Sunderland in the long run

Mistakes are a way of life for Sunderland right now, but there should be a nice pay-off eventually.

Author:
Michael Graham
Publish date:
Apr 8, 2023 8:38 AM EDT

If packing your squad with young players and developing them was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? As Sunderland are finding out, though, it comes with risk.

With Hull equalizing with the last kick of the game at the Stadium of Light courtesy of a penalty, the spotlight naturally fell on the man who conceded it: Pierre Ekwah.

Ekwah is one of the least experienced players in the Sunderland senior squad. In fact, the Frenchman has just one first—team start to his name in his career so far, and that only came eight days ago.

"I've said it week-in and week-out, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I feel as though we are learning at the coalface,” Mowbray said of Ekwah’s mistake.

“This team is learning as it is going along, and this was a harsh lesson today - for Pierre it is a harsh lesson not to tackle with the last kick of the game, hanging a leg out when the ball is in the box.

"Don't make any tackles in the box right at the death, just stand up and let them beat you - if they do that and score, good luck to them, but just stand up and make the guy do something rather than you hang a lazy leg out.

“I think he'll learn and hopefully he'll take that into the rest of his career."

Once the frustration subsided, I think Mowbray’s is a perspective that all Sunderland fans ultimately share. This week it was Ekwah, but Trai Hume did the same against Bristol City recently. With Sunderland defending a slender one-goal advantage in injury time, he conceded a penalty and two points were dropped.

Hume made a mistake in the Hull game too, of course, but that’s fine too. Not ideal, but fine. Anthony Patterson has made costly mistakes this season, as has Dan Neil. Show me a man who has never made a mistake and I will show you a man who has never made a decision.

A more conventional model would see these players loaned out to other clubs and the mistakes they make costing them instead, but that’s not how Sunderland, for the most part at least, are going to be doing things now.

They will become better players for those mistakes, though. In fact, mistakes are how players become better. The harsher the lesson the more memorable it will be.

In the meantime, the inconsistencies of youth will continue to be a way of life for Sunderland. The Hull game was the whole season in a microcosm. Brilliant for the most part minute, but hamstrung by crippling naivety a little too often and ultimately not as good a result as the quality deserved.

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