Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris hailed a “brilliant goal” from Romaine Mundle, who struck late on to snatch a 1-1 draw with Preston at the Stadium of Light.
The visitors enjoyed a bright start to the second half and broke the deadlock in the 65th minute through Emil Riis’ neat low finish from the edge of the area.
Mundle, who has featured in the last three matches for Sunderland since returning from a lengthy injury absence, levelled in the 86th minute with a stunning curling effort into the top corner to earn a point.
A draw left promotion-chasing Sunderland six points behind third-placed Burnley in the table and seven away from the automatic spots.
Speaking about Mundle’s strike, Le Bris said: “It was a brilliant goal, I think he needed minutes to recover his feelings and his goal was absolutely brilliant.
“I hope he will be able to score other ones later.”
The equaliser came following a delay in the game due to some confusion around Preston’s substitutions, something Le Bris believes spurred his team on.
“It was a tense situation, a first time for me,” he added.
“It helped us to react, I think, because after the situation we reacted well with a high level of energy and we finished the game with a good dynamic.”
Sunderland had some good opportunities throughout the game, including two in the first half for Wilson Isidor, and Le Bris emphasised the importance of taking chances.
He said: “I think we had four or five chances to score. In this kind of game with an opponent who plays that type of game, it’s very important to score because we can kill the game rather than keeping them alive with their style of play, it’s really difficult to face.
“At the same time, I think we should have a better control of the game, it wasn’t the case this evening.
“We don’t know exactly why, maybe it’s a question of confidence, a question of adjustments, of being tired or not. So we keep going.”
A draw meant the Lilywhites’ winless run in the Championship extended to six games, but boss Paul Heckingbottom was pleased with his team’s performance.
He said: “Delighted with them, excellent, really pleased.
“I’ve said it a lot about how consistent we’ve been, but the other consistent thing we’ve been is not picking up three points when we’ve been really good. That’s the story of our season really.
“We know we’ve got to be better in those (shooting) positions, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been unhappy with us this season.
“The level of consistency has been fantastic, but the other consistent thing is that we’ve not been clinical enough or shown enough quality, composure or good decision-making throughout the season to help us win games.
“But I can’t criticise anything about that performance today, coming here and playing like that.”
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