Inside a horrible and then brilliant night for Sunderland - and the very strong message that followed

It was a game to match the weather.
Alex Pritchard scores for SunderlandAlex Pritchard scores for Sunderland
Alex Pritchard scores for Sunderland

To give you a better of idea of what that looked like, consider that just about the most interesting thing to happen in the last 20 minutes of the first half was when play was paused in order to let two stewards scramble across the pitch in a desperate attempt to haul off a Sky Bet Championship banner that had been blown on.

The wind howled, the rain swirled and no one really got anywhere in particular.

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After the interval the hosts improved and the visitors? Well, they did not. Tony Mowbray said afterwards that this was the worst performance of his tenure so far: "We have to be miles better."

The head coach admitted that was in part his own doing, that he had selected too many ball-players and left his side too exposed out of possession. And it was for sure in part down to Huddersfield, who at times looked limited but always had a good defensive shape and were certainly never lacking for energy.

Mowbray, though, had sat in his pre-match press conference late last week and said that for now his team just had to find a way. There is an exciting future on the horizon, full of defensive depth and actual strikers but for now it remains just out of reach. All the while the gap to the bottom three was beginning to become if not quite worryingly slender, then without doubt too small for total comfort.

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Find a way they did. Ellis Simms helped, the Everton loanee only supposed to play 30 minutes but so poor was the first half that Mowbray asked him for fifteen more.

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Huddersfield had just had their best chance when Sunderland, at arguably the lowest ebb of their performance, suddenly struck. It was a counter of serious quality and notable that just a day after Mowbray had spoken with genuine relish about pairing up

Amad and Patrick Roberts, they produced a delightful 1-2 to finally carve open the hosts. Alex Pritchard had been struggling until tripping himself up in front of the home fans, who roundly jeered him. From that moment there was no way he was leaving the pitch until he'd had the last word. And how he managed that, a first-time finish that was followed by his fingers placed pointedly in his ears.

It should be said that from here everything about Sunderland's performance improved. Amad was becoming increasingly influential and a smart double substitution from Mowbray rectified his initial error, Abdoullah Ba and Dan Neil bringing energy and poise, joined later by Jay Matete. All three did their short and medium-term prospects no harm.

Huddersfield had their chances, but to every one of those was a Sunderland counter of equal promise.

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That finally told when Amad capped his impressive week by firing through the legs of Nicholls. "Amad is coming," Mowbray said.

While the head coach waits for all those key players to return he is seeing some new ones emerge, and even if this wasn't a vintage display it mattered not for now. There was singing and even a little dancing in front of the sold-out away end, that winning feeling back again. It even stopped raining, just about. Job done, just about.