'Gutted' - Dan Neil reveals reaction to costly Watford mistake and message to Sunderland fans

Sunderland team captain Dan Neil has revealed he was “gutted” after giving away a penalty earlier this season against Watford at Vicarage Road in the Championship.

The Black Cats lost the game 2-1 in the league under head coach Régis Le Bris but are unbeaten in their last five since, winning three matches in six games against Hull City, Luton Town and Oxford United following a dramatic draw against Leeds United and a win against Derby County.

Neil has been asked to play as a number six under Le Bris this season and has often dropped into a back five when Sunderland are defending. The midfielder also tends to be the last line of defence in the Black Cats’ midfield, with Jobe and Chris Rigg usually deployed further ahead of their captain.

“I was absolutely gutted after the Watford game,” Neil said after Sunderland’s win against Oxford United at the Stadium of Light, which sent the Black Cats five points clear at the top of the Championship with 12 games played of the 2024-25 season.

“I think that was the first game that I actually dropped into the back five so that's why I got isolated 1v1 in the box. Again, I was obviously gutted after the game and probably two days after it. I kind of took the emotion out of it and I said, well, I've just got to learn from it.

“You know, if I'm going to play that role where I drop in the back five, obviously being isolated 1v1, I can't dive in the box so that's just another learning part of my game that I've ended up by giving away a penalty but sometimes it's a blessing in disguise because it's allowed me to learn.

“I was gutted for the lads because I thought we absolutely controlled the whole play, especially the second half. It's just a learning curve for me and a learning curve for the whole team as well. If they're ever in that situation, they don't do what I did. In terms of whatever happened after it, it would affect us probably three years of football.

“I've been in the first team for a long time now. I understand what happens when you have a bad game and what happens when you have a good game. So I just try not to get too down after games and we've got a really good core group of lads in there that help each other out. The coaching staff are brilliant as well. I moved on from it pretty quickly.”

Neil was handed the captaincy by Le Bris at the beginning of the current season at the tender age of just 22 years old. The midfielder’s appointment to the role had shades of George Honeyman back in 2018 while Neil was still working his way through the club’s youth teams.

As Sunderland prepared for their first season in League One following a second successive relegation, local lad and Academy of Light graduate Honeyman was appointed captain at the age of 23 by then-manager Jack Ross following the departure of John O’Shea.

When asked about comparisons to Honeyman and fans potentially being harsher homegrown players, Neil said: “I think the thing that I always think is whether it's a local boy or not a local boy, nobody's going out there to perform badly.

“Everyone's going out there to give their absolute all for the shirt and yeah, everyone makes mistakes, but it's just how you come back from them. I can understand that. I was a fan and when people make mistakes and we lose games, I'd get frustrated at the players. But as a player, you have to move on from it quickly because you've got games coming up.

“You can't sulk over it because it's going to affect your teammates if you're in the starting XI the week after. Especially with the role I've got now as captain, I can't afford to let that give him the penalty. It would affect me going into the game against Derby on the Tuesday night because that means they're going to be playing with basically one less man if I'm sulking over it

“Like I said, nobody's going out there to point a bad performance and as a professional footballer, you have to deal with it. Social media is so big now, but you just try not to get sucked into it and you make sure that you're ready for the next game.”

Reflecting on the win against Oxford United at the Stadium of Light on Saturday and the previous victories against Hull City and Luton Town, Neil added: “I think everyone was stressing the importance of the best teams in this league in previous seasons that have went up.

“When there's a chance to make it three wins in a week they do it and it sends a statement to the league. There was no way we were going to be complacent coming into the game today and I thought it was a really professional performance with tired legs from a tough six days and I thought we controlled the game from start to finish and it was a really good team performance.”

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