Danny Rose arrived to rapturous applause and walked off to standing ovation – but left the Stadium of Light a disappointed man.
The flying full-back was in fine form on his return to Sunderland - the club where he spent such a successive loan spell in 2012-13, landing the Black Cats Young Player of the Year Award along the way.
His name was cheered when the teams were announced and he handed his shirt to a young fan after the final whistle.
But the home side’s late equaliser to deny us maximum points in a game we’d dominated left the England international admitting: “A draw feels like a defeat.”
Danny’s raids down the left were a feature throughout as we opened the scoring inside three minutes through Nacer Chadli.
Sunderland hit back within a minute but we continued to run the show, Mousa Dembele struck the woodwork before Christian Eriksen restored our advantage two minutes into the second half.
More chances came and went - Erik Lamela rattled the crossbar - only for Sunderland to level with a slice of fortune on 82 minutes as Jordi Gomez’ free-kick zipped through a packed area, hit Harry Kane and bobbled home.
“We’re all disappointed, the lads, the gaffer, all the staff,” said Danny. “You can sense something like that happening when you are on the pitch and you don’t take your chances.
“The response from the Liverpool game was brilliant. I don’t think anyone could argue with that. We played well, controlled the game, created chances and hit the woodwork twice but we didn’t finish it off and we were punished.
“It’s two points dropped and in a way, it even feels like a defeat. As I said, we’re all bitterly disappointed.”
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Below - Danny's heatmap shows his action areas at Sunderland