Roy Hodgson admitted the Baggies entered a 2-0 lead too early at The Stadium of Light as Albion failed to hold on to their wonderful start to eventually earn a 2-2 draw.
James Morrison scored his first Premier League goal since March with a rare header from an excellent Chris Brunt free kick in the fifth minute. Shane Long then sent Albion fans into raptures when he doubled the lead 67 minutes later.
However, Nicklas Bendtner deflected effort gave Sunderland a lifeline in the 24th minute before Ahmed Elmohamady levelled the scores three minutes later.
Both sides had further chances to take the lead, however Albion’s defensive rearguard stood firm to earn a well deserved point.
Baggies boss Roy Hogdson admitted he would’ve taken a point before the game and the early goals came too soon for his side.
“We went 2-0 up too early," said Hodgson.
"We still had 90 minutes to go after that so the game starts all over again.
"What going 2-0 up does is give you great opportunities because if you can defend well, you know the opponents are going to come at you and you'll have chances on the counter-attack, which in actual fact happened in the first half.
"But I think we should give credit to Sunderland for mounting a strong challenge after getting over the disappointment of a poor start, both in terms of conceding goals and maybe giving the ball away more than Steve Bruce would have liked in that early period.
"They got themselves together again and got the goal that brought them back into it at 2-1.
"I thought they played very well for a spell.
"At half-time, it was up to us to get our minds right again and not to think about the fact we'd been 2-0 up, but make certain we got ourselves organised enough to get a result in the second half - a result being a draw or a victory.
"I think we did that reasonably well and that's important because we all know the mental aspects of football.
"Words like squandering opportunities and wasting chances - all these things go through your mind.
"You've got to put it out of your mind because if you're not careful, you really waste your chance because you go from 2-0 up to 2-3 or 2-4."
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