O’Neill: ‘A frustrating afternoon’

Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill was left disappointed as his side conceded within a minute of equalizing at Fulham yesterday.

After Clint Dempsey opened the scoring with a 12th minute strike, Sunderland levelled through Phil Bardsley who crashed home from outside the area.

However, parity was short-lived and just 15 seconds later, Moussa Dembele put the Cottagers into the lead and ultimately secured the win.

Speaking afterwords to Sky Sports News, O’Neill said:

‘It was a great goal (from Bardsley), he’s capable of doing that. It was a fantastic build-up, a great goal that put us right back in the game and within eight or 10 seconds of the kick-off they’ve gone 2-1 up again.

‘That was particularly galling for us, but overall in our second-half performance we’ve tried to take the game to them.’

O’Neill continued:

‘Of course they’re going to have one or two chances themselves with us gambling on everything, but we’ve failed to take the chances that were relatively simple.’

Sunderland finish their campaign at the Stadium of Light this Sunday with a visit from Manchester United.