Sunderland 2-2 Southampton: Black Cats Stand Up To Saints To Win Valuable Point

Sunderland stretched their record to one defeat in ten games now as they came from two goals down to draw 2-2 in a game Gus Poyet will undoubtedly feel they should have won. Goals from Fabio Borini and Adam Johnson cancelled out Southampton's lead, as they prepare to face Manchester United on Wednesday in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final. It wasn't the start that Sunderland had hoped for, when Jay Rodriguez fired it past Vito Mannone from the edge of the 18 yard box after a matter of minutes, but despite the Sunderland fans singing "things, can only get better", they weren't. Dejan Lovren took advantage of a very poor Sunderland performance after half an hour, but then out of nowhere, on loan Liverpool striker Borini found the back of the net, despite a slight deflection from Artur Boruc to pull the Black Cats back into the game, perhaps undeserving. Many of the pundits, journalists and even fans agreed that it was perhaps the worst opening 45 minutes that had seen Sunderland play in a very long time, but the second half seen the Sunderland we have been used to in recent weeks emerge. The man of the moment Johnson made it five goals in four matches, following on from his hat-trick last week against Fulham, in spectacular style as he powered the ball in at the back post from an acute angle to bring the scores level. With five minutes left of normal time to play, The Saints were forced to make two substitutions as both Gaston Ramirez and goal scorer Lovren were stretchered off at the same time from opposite ends of the pitch, forcing a hefty seven minutes of added time. Neither side could grab a winner, but this was certainly one of the games Sunderland will look back on at the end of the season should they pull off the great escape. Attendance: 38115