Sunderland midfielder Craig Gardner has hailed his team's performance during their 1-1 draw with Southampton yesterday.

Sunderland conceded late on to prevent them picking up their first win of the season, having led for much of the match through Emanuele Giaccherini's early goal.

However, despite the disappointing end to the match, Gardner believes that the Black Cats put in a good performance and reserved special praise for his side's defensive showing.

"We expected them to throw everything at us. They were at home for the first time in the season. We expected that and against Fulham we did absolutely everything apart from find the net," Gardner told the Press Association.

"We came here and I thought we did really well. Yeah, they were on top but they never really broke us down. I thought we defended brilliantly as a team and the 2,000 Sunderland fans that came down were absolutely unbelievable as well, singing their hearts out.

"Hopefully they can understand we came here with a game plan and got a result. We got the one so we can look onwards and upwards now."

Sunderland currently sit 15th in the Premier League table having picked up just one point from their opening two games.