Miron Muslic thought Plymouth Argyle's players came through a test of their character as they battled out a 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

The Pilgrims are now four points adrift at the bottom of the Championship after their winless run extended to 15 games, but performance against the promotion-chasing Black Cats was a major improvement on the 5-0 mauling by another of the divisions' top sides, Burnley, only three days earlier.

It was a positive reaction from the players to that Home Park humiliation and at least offers the hope that Argyle can stage a fight to stay up.

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Argyle went ahead against Sunderland with an own goal from Anthony Patterson in the 58th minute when the ball just about crossed the line after a Ryan Hardie attempt from a very tight angle which was not on target was redirected off the Sunderland goalkeeper.

The home side hit back to lead 2-1 with goals with Wilson Isidor and Trai Hume before Nathanael Ogbeta, one of four players sent on as substitutes all in the 77th minute by Muslic, equalised with a terrific shot high into the net.

It meant Argyle picked up just their fourth away Championship point from 15 games this season and it also marked the first time they had scored more than once in any of those matches.

Muslic said: "For sure, it's a step forward. We are moving slowly, but we are moving and that's the most important thing. Difficult days for us, challenging days behind us.

"We lose the game five-zero just a couple of days ago and then you know you have to come to Sunderland and face one of the strongest teams, especially here (at the Stadium of Light). It takes courage and I'm very happy we showed this reaction."

He continued: "The reaction was there, just to show that we can do it better. I think nobody actually put a penny on us that we can actually collect something today.

"We believed we can do this, I think we had a very good defensive structure and didn't allow a lot, and then also moments for us to create goal scoring opportunities, and we did that. Of course, if you can manage to score that late it's always a little bit of luck but it's football and you need this also."

In addition to the two goals they did get, Argyle had a number of other good chances to score, such as a close range Hardie header which went wide and a shot from Callum Wright which was touched onto the inside of a far post by Patterson and rolled back across just in front of the line.

Muslic said: "You cannot survive only by defending because Sunderland is just too strong collectively and too good individually. They will create a moment. We knew we had to defend very strong and all together, but we also have to create moments of danger and that was way, way better than the last games."

After Patterson's own goal, it took Sunderland only a few minutes to draw level through Wilson Isidor before Trai Hume put them ahead in the 73rd minute.

Muslic said: "That's Sunderland, they don't give you too much to enjoy, and that's okay. The most important thing is that we showed the reaction after 2-1 because most of the times you are done, especially here, but we believed we can do this and I think in the end we deserved this point."

It also gave the 800-strong travelling Green Army in a crowd of 41,097 at the Stadium of Light plenty to shout about after the mammoth trip to the north-east of England.

Muslic said: "I'm here, I think, for 13-14 days and that's already game number four so I have had more games than training sessions, but the Green Army travelling the whole night 800-900 kilometres to be here to support us shows the big, big heart, and also how big this club is and how important Argyle is for the fans.

"Before I left the locker room before kick-off I just said 'They travelled the whole night, 12-13 hours, we have an obligation to give it all and we did."

Just a fortnight after taking charge of Argyle, there is still a lot for work ahead for the Pilgrims' boss to get the team playing how he wants them to.

He said: "It's a long, long journey for us but I'm very patient. If you turn things around quickly it can get a mess. My first initial thought is just to stabilise this team, to get them in a good structure and to fill this structure, like today, with big, big heart, with passion, with the desire to go fully and be brave."

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