Regis Le Bris felt his Sunderland side were fortunate to claim a point against Plymouth despite conceding a last-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light.
The promotion-chasing Black Cats were a long way from their best as they toiled against the Championship’s bottom club, and fell behind when Anthony Patterson deflected Ryan Hardie’s cross into his own net.
Goals from Wilson Isidor and Trai Hume looked like securing all three points, only for some slack defending to allow Plymouth substitute Nathanael Ogbeta to fire home.
Argyle’s equaliser came in the final minute of normal time, but Le Bris conceded his side were fortunate to take anything at all given how poorly they played.
The Sunderland boss said: “In the end, I think we were a bit lucky to win a single point.
“I think we started well because the first half was OK – not impressive, but we were faced with a very compact low block and we found some solutions.
“We didn’t create many chances, so we talked at half-time how we could create more.
“But during the second half, I think we made many mistakes. We opened our shape, and they found solutions to create chances and scored.
“We came back into the game, but towards the end, they were more direct and we didn’t manage the end of the game properly.”
With Sheffield United having lost to Hull on Friday night, Sunderland would have moved to within a point of the top two had they won, but Le Bris feels it is too early to worry about what anyone else is doing in the race for promotion.
He said: “I don’t really think about what anyone else is doing. We will see where we are at the end of the season, it is not about what happens in a single round of games.”
Plymouth were thrashed 5-0 at home by Burnley on Wednesday evening, and went into the game having picked up just three points on the road all season.
They are still to claim an away victory, but their manager Miron Muslic nevertheless feels their draw on Wearside represented progress given how badly things went in midweek.
Muslic said: “It’s a step forward. We are moving slowly, but we are moving and that is the most important thing.
“These have been difficult days for us, challenging days behind us. If you lose the game 5-0 just a few days ago and then you know you have to come to Sunderland, it takes courage.
“I am very happy that we showed this reaction and showed this character to come through such a difficult test. If we can manage this, then it is a step forward, and this was a step forward for us.
“The reaction was there. We showed that we can do things better. No one would probably have put a penny on us getting something this afternoon, but we believed we could do this.
“We had a very good defensive structure and didn’t allow them a lot at all. Then we also had moments when we could create good goalscoring opportunities and we did that.”
