Sunderland captain Dan Neil says the players “will give our absolute all” to get the team promoted despite the late defeat at Leeds on Monday night.

The Black Cats looked on course to move to within four points of Leeds when Wilson Isidor put them ahead at Elland Road.

But substitute Pascal Struijk headed in twice in the last 15 minutes to send Leeds top of the Championship and leave Sunderland’s automatic promotion hopes looking slim.

But Neil told BBC Newcastle: “We have got 13 massive games coming up and we have to treat them all like cup finals.

“We know what the Championship is like, there will be twists and turns to come.

“I know for a fact all the lads are hurting and we will give our absolute all to get the best possible outcome at the end of the season.

“We’ll do everything to get this club to where we believe it belongs. Let’s stick together and have a right good run at these remaining games.”

Sunderland’s players dropped to the ground as Leeds’ bench emptied to celebrate the late turnaround which leaves Neil’s side eight points behind second-placed Sheffield United.

Sunderland next face Hull City on Saturday lunchtime and Neil says they must be better at playing out under pressure.

“It was a really hard one to take, there’s been a few this season where we have conceded so late,” he added.

“We were the better team for a mile in the first half and controlled the game without the ball. The second half was always going to be a different story.

“We struggled to get out and a team of our quality needs to find a way to get out. It was chaos in the second half.”