Vincent Kompany had this classy Sunderland message in verdict on Burnley comeback

Tony Mowbray's side took a 2-0 lead into the break thanks to goals from Amad and Dan Neil, but three goals in 20 minutes early in the second half turned the game on its head. Josh Brownhill added a fourth near the end of the 90 minutes as Kompany's side climbed back to within striking distance of the top of the Championship.

Kompany said the second half performance from his side was 'everything I love about football', and was quick to praise the hosts for their part in the game.

His introduction Manuel Benson at the interval proved decisive as the Belgian played a big part in the comeback, but the former Manchester City defender felt the absence of both senior strikers and regular defenders in the home ranks did play a part in the emphatic end result.

Kompany said: "I hated everything about the first half, how we turned up, our intensity, our challenges. Everything starts with that. You can have had a bad day but the basics weren't there. The second half was everything I love, we were relentless.

"At half time you don't need to mess about [with your team talk] when your basics go like that. I can move as many magnets on a tactics board as I like, it's pointless if you don't do the basics right. I could have changed anyone at half-time today, I just wanted to get Benny on the pitch. I can go through the entire team, the second half they were different players. To be fair to the lads, we haven't really been in this situation before today - we've learned about each other.

“In all fairness, Sunderland did fantastic, they had a lot of injuries," Kompany added.

"They are going through a period where they have had to find solutions to difficult problems and they did ever so well.

“I think whatever the manager said before the game, I think it worked out much better than what we said and what we did. The point is that it was a tough game for us.

"I wasn't disappointed with the positions we were getting in during the first half, we just couldn't beat our direct opponent. Second half we did that. There are lessons for us: never give up and in the Championship, if you drop your levels you are bang average, simple as that.

"We had a large away support today and in that second half we had to get them going, you could feel it turn straight away. To be fair as well, I think Sunderland are dealing with a lot of personnel issues and I think when you are dealing with that, it's a lot harder to hold onto stuff as well. Our team did really well to push on."

Burnley next face Norwich City at Turf Moor on Tuesday night.