Burnley 2 Sunderland 2: Keane hails another Sunderland rally

John Nisbet
Monday 18 December 2006 01:00 GMT
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Roy Keane knows plenty about comebacks after his time as a player with Manchester United and while Sunderland's fightback at Burnley might have lacked the high stakes that frequently accompanied such an event at Old Trafford, it highlighted the spirit he is instilling in the side.

"We keep giving ourselves mountains to climb but to be fair to the players, we keep climbing them," the Sunderland manager said after his side scored twice in the last 10 minutes to rescue a point. "It would be nice not to be climbing these mountains all the time, but my players have shown they have the heart. It is in such adversity that you can learn most about players."

David Connolly's injury-time equaliser capped Sunderland's late revival. Burnley had stormed ahead after just nine minutes when Kyle Lafferty scored from just inside the area and he pounced with another neat finish in the 52nd minute. However, the visitors kept fighting and Grant Leadbitter set up a tense finish with a powerful shot 10 minutes from time.

"We did enough to win that game but two lapses of concentration in the final third have cost us," the Burnley manager, Steve Cotterill, said.

"The game was going nowhere and I felt if anyone was going to score then it would be us getting another goal," he added. "We had a chance to add a third and conceding so late made it a real sickener. But football has a habit of biting you sometimes and it bit us."

Goals: Lafferty (9) 1-0; Lafferty (52) 2-0; Leadbitter (80) 2-1; Connolly (90) 2-2.

Burnley (4-4-2): Coyne; Thomas, McGreal, Duff, McCann; W Elliott (Spicer, 66), Hyde, Mahon, Jones; Lafferty, Noel-Williams (Branch, 90). Substitutes not used: Sinclair, G O'Connor, Foster.

Sunderland (4-4-2): Ward; Whitehead, Varga, Caldwell, Collins; S Elliott, Leadbitter, Yorke (Miller, 62); Wallace (Kavanagh, 62); Murphy (Hysen, 74), Connolly. Substitutes not used: Fulop (gk), Nyatanga.

Referee: M Dean (Wirral).

Booked: Burnley Hyde; Sunderland Caldwell, Yorke.

Man of the match: Lafferty.

Attendance: 14,798.

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