Neil fills in the blanks for Cats
ALEX NEIL felt Sunderland played better at Charlton than they did in last week’s stunning win at Wigan.
The visitors spurned numerous chances in London as they failed to score for the first time in seven games and dropped out of the play-off places.
But Neil believed the performance warranted more. “I think we deserved to win, everybody could see that,” the Sunderland boss said.
“For the first 35 to 40 minutes we were completely dominant.
“We probably had four or five really good opportunities, but we didn’t quite take them.
“We created more chances today than what we’ve probably done in the last two or three matches.
“It’s frustrating because we’ve scored in every single one of them.
“The performance, particularly in the first half, was as good as we’ve played since I’ve been here.
“What we’ve done now is given ourselves a platform to try and be successful.”
Charlton had lost their last five matches and manager Johnnie Jackson hopes the point at the Valley will prove to be a turning point.
He said: “It was a tough battling performance. They’re a very good team, they score a lot of goals and cause you a lot of problems.
“We knew it would be tough, so to come away with a clean sheet on the back of shipping too many goals was really pleasing.
“It wasn’t a vintage Charlton, but that will come when we’re getting some guys back and getting confidence. It’s been tough, no getting away
from it.
“It was a tough run of fixtures coinciding with us being at our most depleted.”