Sam Allardyce hails 'outstanding' Ben Foster as West Brom frustrate luckless Sunderland

That is the view of boss Sam Allardyce, who could only watch on from the technical area as his Sunderland side saw chance after chance go begging.

Foster was excellent, making smart saves with all parts of his body to deny Jermain Defoe, Jan Kirchhoff and Fabio Borini.

Dame N'Doye did get the ball in the net but it was rightly ruled offside in added-on time.

In all, Sunderland peppered the Baggies goal with 22 shots - but crucially only seven were on target.

When quizzed on whether the goalless draw had as much to do with poor finishing as it did Foster, Allardyce said: "A little bit but on how many saves he made, you have to say he was outstanding.

"Our finishing could have been better. But then it is the inches, just an inch the wrong side of the post, the right bounce of the ball.

"It doesn't seem to be going our way, those little breaks. When we thought we had got it, [N'Doye] was offside.

"We can't control those factors, we just have to try and keep creating and look to produce victories rather than draws.

"We have to beat Leicester and then we have Norwich to come. The closer we get to them points wise, then the bigger the game it will be.

"We have a game in hand but that doesn't happen until the last week of the season, Everton here.

"When we have drawn games we should win them, that is becoming a problem because it has gone on so long.

"Hopefully, sooner rather than later, it will turn in our favour."