DAN Neil launched a passionate defence of Wilson Isidor after his double penalty disappointment at Burnley, praising the striker for his courage to take the second after missing the first - and backing him to "bounce back" and score the goals to keep Sunderland in the Championship promotion race.

In an emotional social media post, Isidor said he was "ashamed" and apologised to the fans and his teammates, as he had done in the dressing room at Turf Moor after the game.

But Neil says Isidor's devastation shows just how much the striker has bought into life at Sunderland since his summer arrival.

And he says Sunderland's first choice frontman will put this disappointment behind him and will remain a "massive player" between now and the end of the season.

"What I'll say is that since Wilson came to the club, he's embraced everything about it," said Neil.

"He's stepped up to take the first one because he wants to score goals for this club and even after that disappointment, he's still stepped up. It hasn't happened for him but I think we have to commend his courage to want to put it right. He's given us a new dynamic this season, everyone can see that and I have no doubt in my mind that being the player and character he is, he'll bounce back and score a lot of goals between now and the end of the season.

"Without his goals this year we'd be in a much worse place and the fact that he wants to take penalties and score goals for us is a massive positive. We all need to get behind him now, staff, players and fans - because he's going to be a massive player for us in this run in."

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Sunderland were excellent at Turf Moor, finding their feet after a difficult opening and pushing for the winner in the second half against a Burnley side that are now unbeaten in 14 games and haven't lost at home all season.

Neil said: "We started a little bit slow in the first 10, 15 minutes but after that I thought we were the better team.

"We had so many chances and we know we should have won the game. It's an alright point if we make sure we go on and win on Tuesday. I said before the game and I think all the lads agreed that if we can't win, don't lose and we stay in the race for those automatics.

"It's obviously disappointing because we know we had the chances to win even without the penalties. That's just how it went."