SUNDERLAND collected a second point of the season at Villa Park when Jeremain Lens’ second half strike clinched a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa.

It was a mixed bag of an afternoon for the Black Cats – without a win in four Premier League games this season - and they will be relieved to have returned to the North-East without a defeat after having to defend strongly for the final half an hour.

France international Yann M‘Vila had put Sunderland in to the lead early on when his exceptional free-kick was just reward for a promising start.

But less than three minutes later Scott Sinclair grabbed the first of his two goals in the 11th minute when he converted a penalty after Lee Cattermole had stupidly brought him down in the box.

Sinclair then put Villa ahead four minutes from the end of the first half but a positive start to the second half from Sunderland heralded an equaliser from £8m man Lens moments after Dick Advocaat had decided to ring the changes.

Advocaat felt the introduction of latest signing Ola Toivonen, who signed on a season-long loan from Rennes, at half-time along with Steven Fletcher was necessary after Sunderland trailed and it had the impact he had hoped for.

To be behind by a goal was such a frustration for the men from Wearside after a relatively impressive start from the Black Cats which saw a couple of attacks come to nothing even before M’Vila’s brilliance.

The Frenchman curled a beautiful right-foot free-kick high inside Brad Guzan’s top left corner and it was delivered with the sort of precision which would have caused any keeper problems.

That arrived inside eight minutes and gave the whole Sunderland squad a lift, but then Cattermole had his moment of madness less than two minutes later.

Cattermole, who conceded a penalty at Leicester on the opening day, climbed over the back of Sinclair around six yards from goal. There was really no need to but referee Robert Madley correctly pointed to the spot.

Sinclair (pictured below) picked himself up and sent goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon the wrong way to pull the Villans level and that handed the initiative to Aston Villa.

The Northern Echo:

Villa, who had Jordan Amavi and Idrissa Gana in particular causing problems, struggled to pose a serious threat to Pantilimon until the second arrived and Younes Kaboul, who has been heavily criticised since his arrival, defended strongly after replacing Sebastian Coates.

But Kaboul’s sidekick John O’Shea was not quick enough to edge ahead of Sinclair four minutes before the break when the former Manchester City winger converted a lovely cross from Amavi at the end of a free-flowing attack.

Something had to be done by Advocaat and he opted for Toivonen and Fletcher, with Cattermole and Danny Graham the men to make way. The changes had the desired effect.

Two minutes after Guzan had tipped over a near post header from Fletcher shortly after the restart, Sunderland pulled level. Toivonen was at the centre of things, winning possession and then rolled a pass to Lens.

The Dutch winger cut inside Cieran Clark on the right and his on-target effort took a touch off Micah Richards before it bounced over Guzan to level things up.

After that Aston Villa did the attacking and should have scored when Richards did Sunderland a favour when he somehow cleared a goalbound effort from team-mate Sinclair off the line.

There was also a stunning save from Pantilimon when he got down to his right quickly to turn away a powerful drive from Ashley Westwood after Rudy Gestede’s knock down and Sunderland had to dig deep to get a result. And after a couple of further scares, Sunderland could celebrate a hard earned point.

ASTON VILLA: Guzan; Hutton, Richards, Clark, Amavi; Sanchez, Westwood; Bacuna (Gil 68), Gana, Sinclair; Gestede. Subs: Bunn (Gk), Ayew, Veretout, Kozak, Cole, Bennett.

SUNDERLAND (4-3-3): Pantilimon; Jones, Kaboul, O’Shea, Van Aanholt; Rodwell, Cattermole (Toivonen 46), M’Vila; Lens (Larsson 77), Graham (Fletcher 46), Defoe. Subs: Coates, Mannone (gk), Watmore, Gooch.