SUNDERLAND manager Alex Neil was left bemused by how their clash with Queens Park Rangers ended in a dramatic draw but felt his side deserved more from the game.

After Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms put the Black Cats 2-0 up at half-time, Sunderland looked like they were heading away from the Stadium of Light with three points. That was until Ilias Chair bent a 20 yard free-kick into the top corner five minutes from time before goalkeeper Seny Dieng popped up from a corner ball to score a late equaliser in stoppage time.

In a late twist of the knife, Elliot Embleton had the chance to win the game after Dieng saved Stewart’s shot in the box but saw his striker cannon off the crossbar.

After the game, Alex Neil felt it was an unreflective outcome as he said: “We deserved to win the game. How well we played certainly in the first half. The second half apart from the Tyler Roberts chance where he cuts across and puts it on his right foot and arguably should score, I thought we defended pretty well.

“They changed their shape slightly. Although they played three up front and with a ten, what they did is moved Chair off the left and played Roberts but what Roberts did was push the back line so they had four against three. But I thought as soon as we changed our shape and matched them up and went to a back four, we took the sting out of the game, controlled the ball, got Patrick (Roberts) on the ball and got a bit of joy.

“To be honest, I could just see the game petering out. The problem we had was we got two transitions that cost two chances, if you want to call the free-kick a chance, they both end up in the net. We’ll see thousands across the season where if they get better chances than that, you’ll still end up winning the match. Unfortunately for us today, we ended up on the wrong side of it.”

The manager felt it was a bitter pill to swallow having had a two goal load for a vast portion of the game but Neil admits there wasn’t much more his side could do to prevent that result from happening as they felt the brunt of two freaks incidents.

The Northern Echo: Seny Dieng celebrates scoring QPR's late equaliser Seny Dieng celebrates scoring QPR's late equaliser

“I don’t think it’s naivety” he added. “The first one, Dennis nicks the ball off chair and dives. The centre back comes in for the collision but plays a quick pass. We don’t narrow quick enough and Tyler Roberts takes them up the pitch 50 yards and then we fouled at the edge of the box. But you have got to give the lad credit, he puts the ball in the top corner.

“There is nothing tactically or structurally you can do about that. The kid puts it in the top corner and it’s a goal. When they get a corner later on, we had the ball, they lose at the edge of the box and then they turn the ball down the side, they have a chance and then it becomes a corner.

“Two phases come into the box and unfortunately when they bring the goalkeeper up, there’s not enough players to mark so somebody is free in the box and it lands at goalkeeper. The chances of that are highly unlikely and as far as I’m concerned, they got out of jail.

“You could see in the celebrations how delighted they were because I don’t think they deserved anything from the game.”

An injury to Dan Ballard earlier the game forced Sunderland into an earlier substitutions but as QPR threw numbers off the bench and provided fresh legs, Neil was not able to do the same to maintain the shape of his team and see the game out with his players tiring towards the dying embers.

He added: “I was mindful of it but the problem we’ve got is we’ve got specialised positions that we don’t have cover for. So who do I put on?

“I needed to replace him because he’s tired but then I look around and I’ve got guys who are good players but play in different positions so the difficulty I’ve got is I don’t have a like for like. There’s not much I can do about that.”