DAVID MOYES thinks Sunderland have entered 2017 by providing a little hope to the club’s success starved supporters after coming from behind twice to earn a point against Liverpool.

Despite trailing on two separate occasions courtesy of a goal in each half from Daniel Sturridge and Sadio Mane, the Black Cats battled away to claim a hard-earned draw courtesy of two penalties from Jermain Defoe.

The result leaves Sunderland in the relegation zone ahead of the FA Cup third round tie with Burnley this weekend and then the relegation fight will return when Stoke City visit the Stadium of Light a week later.

Moyes knows Sunderland, whose only home defeat in five games since October was a 1-0 reversal to leaders Chelsea, need to find a way to return to winning ways after losing three in a row.

But the Scot feels his players have shown, in front of a crowd of more than 46,000, they are capable of making things hard for the best teams and that bodes well in the fight to stay up.

Moyes said: “We're saying to the players it's important to pick up points at home, that's really important. We're starting to get a bit of belief that we can win games or draw them against the better teams here, which between now and the end of the season is going to be massive for us to do that.

“I honestly thought the players raised the supporters by the way they got up to Liverpool, how they put them under pressure, how they pressed them. Maybe if I was a German manager, you might praise that. If I'd been German you might praise me for doing something different.

“I thought we did well. We stuck at it. We stuck in against Liverpool as much as we could and tried to make it hard for them and we played well as well.”

Sunderland’s response after a dire defeat at Burnley on New Year’s Eve heartened the manager and supporters, although the list of absentees in a relatively small squad is still growing. Didier Ndong, Wahbi Khazri and Lamine Kone are all heading away on Africa Cup of Nations duty now.

Moyes hopes there will be a bit of manoeuvring on the transfer front this month to give him some help, although he said: “I'm going with the standard line at the moment. I told you a week or two what was going on.

“The chief executive (Martin Bain) came out and told everyone what the situation was. If that changes in January we'll all get a surprise; I hope it could alter but at the moment I'm standing by that.”

The players Moyes did call on against Liverpool delivered, even if it would have been a nice boost to earn all three points to climb out of the relegation zone.

There were complaints about both penalty decisions, particularly the second when Lucas Leiva was adjudged to have fouled Jermain Defoe, earning the free-kick from which Mane handled Seb Larsson’s dead ball.

It was not so much the handball, more the initial free-kick decision with just eight minutes remaining that angered Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. He said: “I would say no foul for the free-kick. I saw it again no contact.

“It doesn't feel good and it's not because of the point but two penalties in the game. Usually what do you have to do to get a penalty? But that was harsh. It was not the worst mistake in the world, that’s why it feels so hard.”

Moyes, thankful for having a penalty taker like Defoe, replied: “I think things go against you. You should see what it's like at the bottom of the league! I could have said I thought it (Mane) was a handball and I could easily have said there was another handball (when the ball hit Emre Can’s arm).

“But it's important to have a really good penalty kick-taker. Through the season you'll get penalty kicks and you always hope you can nearly say, 'This should be OK.' I think with Jermain a lot of the times you think, 'This will be OK.' He converted the two of them brilliantly well.”

Moyes also praised goalkeeper Vito Mannone. The Italian was criticised for his part in the 4-1 defeat at Burnley, but made a number of impressive stops to keep Liverpool at bay.

He said: “Vito played really well, especially after the game on Saturday. It was important for him and I think for the team as well. We've needed our goalkeeper, whoever it's been and we needed him.”