Sunderland could not find a winning goal as they were held to a goalless draw by Preston at the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats were looking to complete back-to-back home wins, having won 3-0 against Rotherham United last time out on Wearside.
But against the Championship's tightest defence they found it difficult to carve out clear goalscoring chances and managed only two efforts on target all game. At the other end, they kept a clean sheet against a Preston side that remains the division's lowest scorers - although they needed one fine save from Anthony Patterson and goalline clearances from Aji Alese and Lynden Gooch to complete the shutout.
Sunderland were sixth in the table going into the game but slipped one place to seventh.
