Simon Grayson hailed the commitment of players to dig in when it mattered most at Hillsborough tonight.
George Honeyman scored the opening goal inside three minutes, his second in three games, when he latched onto Aiden McGeady’s unselfish squared pass.
Sunderland continued to impress in the opening half with Lewis Grabban going close to doubling the lads’ lead with a header off McGeady’s in-swinging free-kick.
The Owls came back into it in the second period but were largely frustrated by the defensive resilience of Lamine Kone and Ty Browning, until Dave Jones rifled home a rocket from 30 yards to earn a point.
Speaking post-match, Grayson delivered his thoughts.
“It was a good performance again to come here and not get beat,” he said.
“When you look at the game we started well, had some good chances and were really the better team in the first half.
“If we had got the second goal then we would’ve silenced the crowd.
“They weren’t running out of ideas but they hadn’t opened us up or anything like that.
“(It was) a wonder goal that gave them the impetus and got the crowd behind them.
“We withstood a lot of pressure and that is a good mentality to have.
“After their goal there were some real questions asked of the team, whether we were going to concede a second and lose the game, but we didn’t.
“We withstood a lot of pressure,” he continued.
“This place (Hillsborough) can get going when it is like that but ultimately we are pleased with the first half.
“If we had scored the second goal then we would’ve won the game. Up until the wonder goal we looked very comfortable with what we were doing.”
