Blues boss Paul Lambert hailed his team’s first half display as “absolutely brilliant” and felt that they would have beaten Sunderland but for the error which led to the Black Cats’ second-half equaliser as the game ended 1-1.
"The first half was absolutely brilliant - chance, chance, chance, the play was excellent, the atmosphere, everything was great,” he said.”
"We got the goal, thoroughly deserved the goal. There wasn’t one problem in the game, not one. And then we lose [a goal] to a mistake, a terrible mistake.”
He added: "We were excellent, we couldn’t complain the way we played the whole game, if we don’t make that error, we win the game.
"Sunderland never really hurt us or created many chances, I never felt threatened in it.”
Asked what he said to skipper Luke Chambers about his error which led to Lynden Gooch’s 64th-minute leveller, he said: "That probably remains in the dressing room. He knows himself what’s happened.”
Town looked to be denied a strong call for a penalty in the first half - in addition to a number of other less convincing shouts - when Kayden Jackson was felled in the box and to add insult to injury was booked for diving but the Blues manager admitted he wasn’t sure about the incident.
"I’d have to see it again,” he said. "I thought he was going to pull the trigger at that point, so I’d have to see it again.”
Overall, Lambert felt it was two points dropped: "Yes, but we were playing well, that’s the beauty of it, we were playing well. It’s not bad sometimes when you’re disappointed with a draw.”
Another point on the board disappointed we didn’t win and hopefully the injury isn’t to bad great support today again we go again next week against petterbrough @IpswichTown 🔵⚪ï¸ðŸ™Œ
— Luke Garbutt (@luke_garbutt) August 10, 2019
Regarding Luke Garbutt, who was subbed after suffering a knock later in the first half having scored his second goal in two games, he added: "I don’t know how severe it is. I don’t know, it’s his knee, we’ll have to see what the results are. He’s playing really well, him. Two goals in two games is a really good start.”
Garbutt, already halfway to last his total of four goals last season, was replaced by Alan Judge, who Lambert says is still a little way off his best having played little football in pre-season after suffering a broken wrist while away with the Republic of Ireland in June.
"He’d only played 81 minutes [prior to today], he was on probably on a lot quicker than I anticipated. He would have started against Luton on Tuesday but I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Lambert praised the Town impressive and vocal Blues support with the attendance of 24,041, the biggest crowd for a game other than an East Anglian derby since the Newcastle United match in April 2017.
"Unbelievable, what a support we’ve got," the Blues boss enthused. "You’ve seen that for a League One game. Absolutely brilliant, we have to keep that and hopefully they’ll keep coming back and watching that type of football.
"As I said before, it’ll be up and down because we’ve got a young side but, my God, we’ve got incredible energy, which is great. If we can keep that atmosphere, that’ll be brilliant. The fans were terrific.”
He added: "Those fans have been like that since we’ve been in. The stadium has been rocking a lot of times since we’ve been in. The fans have been brilliant.
"What you see is a result of what happened last year, the momentum’s built and built and built.
'I can only speak for what’s happened in the months I’ve been here and the support has been absolutely fantastic, we’ve sold more season tickets than last season, the fans are coming back and that’s the beauty about it.”
Sunderland manager Jack Ross was scathing about his team’s display before the break.
"The first half was a long way short of where we need to be, a long way short of what we need to do as a team and a long way short of what I would put my name to,” he said.
"Ultimately, it always comes back to me. There was a frank discussion at half-time because we were a goal behind to a team that did the fundamentals a lot better than us.
"They were aggressive, competitive, physical. That have them a platform to go and create and we were deservedly behind. But he felt his team was better after the restart: "Second half we do that and take something from the game.
"A lot to contemplate, first half is a long way off. The second half was a huge difference, it emphasises that you need to do the basics to show the quality you have. We’ve got players with quality but you need to do the basics.
"It’s not very often I’ve said that in my time here, we’ve been frustrated by results at times but there’s been very few times when I can be disappointed with the application. That was the case in first 45 but credit to them, they turned it around.”