Bradford boss David Hopkin believes Sunderland 'got away with one' and hits out at red decision

Josh Maja scored his ninth of the campaign to give Sunderland a half-time lead before a dramatic second half saw two further goals and two red cards, with Max Power and Sean Scannell both seeing red.

Bradford levelled through Anthony O’Connor seven minutes into the second half but Jack Baldwin restored Sunderland's lead almost immediately, his first for the club proving the winner.

Power then saw red for a kick out but Jon McLaughlin saved the resulting Jack Payne penalty before Scannell was red carded for the hosts late on for pushing sub George Honeyman.

"I hate getting beaten and I don’t think we deserved that," reflected Hopkin.

"The players are very disappointed. We kept it positive and put attacking players on to see if we could get something from the game.

"A 2-2 draw would have been a fair result. We showed we could compete with them.

"I’m delighted with the performance of the players. I think Sunderland have got away with one today.

"I asked the players at half-time if we could get the next goal and we did – then we switched off for five or six minutes and conceded again.

“But credit to the players and Jack was brave enough to take the penalty. I thought after that we continued to press and try to get something."

On Scannell's red card, Hopkin added: "I couldn’t really see it. I just thought he was trying to get the ball off the player.

“But some young referees are naïve and get sucked into these things.

“You get four or five Sunderland players around the ball and before you know it, you’re a man down. I just thought he tried to even things up."