Alex Neil admits Sunderland lacked their usual quality in the final third as they were held to a goalless draw by play-off rivals Plymouth. The Black Cats went into the game knowing a win would see them climb above the Pilgrims while retaining their game in hand of the South Coast side.
But the draw means that, while Sunderland climbed to sixth in the table, they are still two points behind fourth-placed Plymouth - albeit they do still have that game in hand. In a tight game at Home Park, Sunderland kept a clean sheet and restricted Plymouth to just a single shot on target but the Black Cats were unable to press home the advantage at the other end, with their best chance falling to Nathan Broadhead in the second period only for him to be foiled Michael Cooper.
"I thought we started great in the first 15 minutes, the way we set up worked really well, we found the spare player, but we didn't really hurt them enough, get in behind them enough, link it well enough in certain aspects," said Neil. "In the run-up to half-time, they moved it better than us and created better opportunities than we did, so we had to alter a few things at half-time to make sure they didn't open us up and cause us too many issues, and I don't think they had a shot on target in the second half.
