SUNDERLAND manager Alex Neil last night lamented his attacking options after having to be content with a point at League One promotion rivals Plymouth Argyle.

Neil expressed frustration at his inability to pep up his frontline to ease the burden on forwards Ross Stewart and Nathan Broadhead as the game at Home Park headed for a goalless draw.

“We’re really light in certain areas but with Ross and Broady, if I could have, I'd liked to have changed them and freshened that front line up and to be honest help them,” Neil told reporters. “In the last 20 minutes you get a sense of anticipation because there’s energy but to be fair to the lads they have run themselves into the ground.

“We’ve flogged Ross in particular to death this year but unfortunately for him we don’t have anyone else and that’s difficult. It is what it is but we need to rest him up and get him ready for the next games.”

Neil went on to express a qualified amount of sympathy for Stewart who has not scored since the 3-0 win at Wigan at the end of February.

“If you take Ross’ career in its entirety, the most he’s played is about 36-38 games," he said. "But at the moment he’s to around mid-40s so to expect the lad to churn it out at this level you’re asking a lot of anybody to do that.

“So I have sympathy for Ross however it only goes so far. You’ve got to suck it up, rest up and get ready to because we’ve got big games coming up."

The result left Sunderland in sixth position in the League One table and Neil admits his side probably did not deserve to take anything more from the game.

“We started great but we didn't hurt them enough,” Neil said. “We didn't link well enough and they had the upper hand for a while.

"We altered a couple of things at half-time and they didn't have a shot on target in the second half.

“We had control for vast majority of the game but we didn't quite do enough in the final third to hurt them.

“I would probably put it as an acceptable outcome. I’m not delighted and I’m not buzzing that we’ve drawn a game because we set out to win the game and our substitutions were intended to make us more aggressive in style and stance.

“We weren’t at our best but it’s a mark of the best sides that you don’t get beat if playing at 80 per cent. We didn't play poorly but didn't do enough to win.”