O'Neill: 'Fitness coming for Fletcher & Sess'

Martin O'Neill was more than happy to take the positives from yesterday's draw at Swansea City but also recognized some of the less pleasing aspects of the 2-2 draw.

Sunderland went ahead with a well-taken 40th minute strike from Steven Fletcher before Wayne Routledge levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Deep into first half injury time, awarded for Swan's left-back Neil Taylor's ankle fracture, Fletcher put the Black Cats back in the lead, tapping home at the far post.

Michael Laudrup's side were not to be denied though and the man of the moment Michu equalised again with a well-taken header.

Speaking afterwords to safc.com, O'Neill praised the Swans' for their performance:

"Swansea are a fine footballing team and when we look back on the match we`ll be able to pick out some things that we should have done better,' said O'Neill.

The Ulsterman also noted his side's lack of goalscoring opportunities:

"When Swansea went down to 10 men I thought that might have been our opportunity to apply a little bit more pressure but unfortunately we weren`t able to do that.

"We didn`t cause them any problems inside their penalty area for the last 10-15 minutes.'

O'Neill also admitted that neither Fletcher, nor Stephane Sessegnon were both 100 per cent fit, with both withdrawn before the end.

New loan signing Danny Rose was left out the matchday 18 altogether as he works towards full fitness.

Next up for the Black Cats is a visit from Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool on September 15.

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