Luke O'Nien perfectly sums up Sunderland's performance after Preston North End stalemate

Luke O’Nien admitted “the performance wasn’t there” as Sunderland had to settle for a 0-0 draw at Preston North End.

The centre-back put in some typically brave blocks to help his team secure a point in a display that was below-par and not what people have come to expect from the Championship leaders.

“I don’t think we merited a win, I don’t think the performance was there,” said O’Nien on Sky Sports. “They had quite big chances compared to us, so coming away with a point you’ve got to take it when you don’t play well. But there is a lot to learn from that on.”

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It didn’t rank as one of Sunderland’s best performances by a long way. O'Nien said: “We worked really hard to get in this position [top] and maybe we’ve got to look back on the things that got us there. Go back to that and not change too much. We are a really good team. We didn’t quite have the flow, the build-up wasn’t quite there.

“The man-for-man references out of possession, we were one step off, with all of it. We still came away with a point so we showed a lot of character as well.

“It takes a good team to grind that out. We didn’t have the flow and we will have to look at it and find out where we went wrong. We’ve done that when we’ve won. To see where we could be better. This is no different.”

There was one bright spot for O’Nien, as he and his team-mates prepare for the Coventry City clash, and that was in the display of one of his colleagues. He concluded: “Tommy [Watson] made his first start for us and I thought he did well. He’s been phenomenal in training. He is going to grow as a player for us.”