Dan Neil's classy gesture to young Sunderland fans that people will love as Kevin Phillips delivers Portsmouth verdict

It was always a possibility that the Wearsiders could finish the day outside the automatic promotion places.

And that is exactly how the day panned out following wins for Plymouth Argyle and Wycombe Wanderers.

Here, though, we take a look at the most interesting Sunderland and League One stories this morning:

Dan Neil’s classy gesture to Sunderland fans

Dan Neil used his weekend off to good effect.

That’s after the Sunderland midfielder attended a presentation for a youth football team in the area.

Indeed, the 19-year-old even had time to spend with the kids following the event.

Neil was pictured playing Playstation with the youngsters, with videos posted to Twitter by Sunderland fans.

Lee Gamble, posting on Twitter, said: “Dan Neil take a bow son, turned up to the friend’s son’s presentation then spent time playing PS4 with them the lads loved it, if anyone has his thank him the kids will never forget that mate.”

Kevin Phillips delivers verdict on Sunderland’s display at Portsmouth

Ex-Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips has delivered his verdict on the Black Cats 4-0 loss against Portsmouth last weekend.

The back four, which consisted of Carl Winchester, Tom Flanagan, Bailey Wright and Dennis Cirkin, lost possession a combined 82 times over the course of the match.

“You cannot afford to be doing that,” he told Football Insider. “Those stats paint a poor picture.

“They must learn from it. There will always be games when you are not at the races though. I was speaking to people who were at the game and they said Sunderland were terrible on the day. It was just a day to forget.

“Players did not perform and the conditions were difficult. It was a poor performance. You will allow it but it cannot be repeated.

“The worst thing for the players is the timing of the international break. They have had to stew on that result. They would have wanted to play today so they could get back to winning ways. Hopefully it doesn’t effect their campaign moving forward because they’ve been excellent so far.”

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