At last! Seb Larsson back on goal trail for Sunderland with Everton free-kick

Sunderland built on the momentum gleaned from victory at Crystal Palace by adding another point to their tally after an absorbing 1-1 draw against Everton yesterday.

The 8-0 mauling at Southampton, followed by more individual howlers in the following week’s defeat to Arsenal, had prompted plenty of question marks over Gus Poyet’s side after they sank into the Premier League’s relegation zone.

But despite a lengthy list of absentees, four points from the subsequent two games have moved Sunderland up to 14th, with midfielder Larsson pleased to see the Black Cats rediscovering their resilience.

Larsson told SportMail: “Performance-wise, I think that was back to how we should be.

“We’ve still got a bit to go. If we had been a bit more clinical, or had a bit of luck at the end, we could have won yesterday.

“But we’ll keep fighting and if we show the spirit we have in the last week or so, we should be okay.

“We’ve been missing quite a few players for a while now too.

“That’s part of football and when they come back, it will make us even stronger and give us more options.”

Larsson saw his opening goal cancelled out within 10 minutes, as Sunderland missed out on recording back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time this season.

But the Swedish international was glad to see his lean spell from set pieces brought to an end after converting direct from a free-kick for the first time in the top flight since ex-manager Martin O’Neill’s opening game at the helm in December 2011.

“It was about time!” said the 29-year-old.

“It’s been more than a while, so hopefully there’ll be a few more coming now.

“It was a nice feeling, but obviously when you don’t get the three points, it takes the edge off it.”

Larsson didn’t begrudge Everton a share of the spoils though, in a game where both sides had several near-misses.

“When you go 1-0 up in a tight game, you’re always going to be disappointed, especially when you concede a penalty,” added Larsson, now with the Sweden squad ahead of Saturday’s Euro 2016 qualifier in Montenegro.

“But at the same time when you look back, we can’t really have too many complaints that Everton came away with a point.

“It was a game that could have gone either way. When you are the team who go 1-0 up, you want to hang on, but it wasn’t to be this time.

“Everton are a very good side and at times we had to let them have the ball.

“That was the plan beforehand.

“They want you to come after them and then open up all the space in behind.

“We couldn’t afford to do that after our recent couple of weeks.

“We tried to be a bit more solid and go back to basics, and it worked.”.