“The last-gasp goal produced some of the greatest scenes the Stadium of Light has ever seen,” writes Paddy Hollis.

Mark Wood examines Sunderland’s recent relationship with VAR — a love/hate affair if ever there was one!

“They could just change the law itself, so that it’s punishable at most by a booking,” writes Mark Wood.

Handballs, offsides and the impact of video assistant referees (VAR) have been huge points of contention in recent years, but is it now time to add hair pulling to the list? Sunderland defender Dan Ballard became the third player this season to be sent off for pulling an opponent's hair in Saturday's 1-1 draw at relegated Wolves. Referee Paul Tierney initially took no action, but showed a red card to the centre-back after VAR advised him to check the incident on the pitchside monitor.

With three huge games still to play, we are still in with a shout at a European spot, and given Granit Xhaka’s visible infuriation at full time, this is a group of players who have evidently bought into that shared aim.

The Lads eked out a 1-1 draw at Molineux following Dan Ballard’s early red card. What did our writers make of it?

Sunderland defender Dan Ballard becomes the third player to be sent off for pulling an opponent's hair in the Premier League this season. Is it time to change the law?

It was not immediately clear what the first-half video assistant referee (VAR) check for violent conduct was for. Once it was established the officials were looking at a hair pull by Dan Ballard then a red card was the only outcome if he was guilty. Whether Ballard's actions could be called violent conduct may still be up for debate, but referee Paul Tierney followed the letter of the law.

Red cards for hair-pulling have never been so frequent in the Premier League. The latest came Saturday when Sunderland defender Dan Ballard was sent off for yanking the hair of Wolverhampton striker Tolu Arokodare as they competed for the ball in the first half of the teams' meeting at Molineux. In January, Arokodare was the recipient of a hair tug by Everton defender Michael Keane, who also was shown a straight red card in a match that finished 1-1 in January.