The striker rounded Black Cats keeper Marton Fulop deep into injury time with the score at 0-0.

But he shot wide of the post to let the home side off the hook and allow a second successive Barclays Premier League victory to slip from his side's grasp.

Allardyce, who made no secret of his availability for the vacant manager's job at the Stadium of Light before his appointment at Ewood Park, admitted he was both delighted and disappointed after the final whistle.

He said: "To say the least, we are disappointed, all the players and myself, not to have take the three points after a very good second-half performance.

"We had not only good, solid, well organised defending, but also some good play in possession and creating some really good chances.

"Keith Andrews, from probably our best move of the day, made a great run from deep and first touch in the box and then didn't tuck it away.

"I don't know whether it was a bad miss or a good save.

"Morten Gamst Pedersen's free-kick looked like it was in the bottom corner, but was tipped on to the post. It was a miraculous save from the goalie.

"And then we got Jason with an open goal and unfortunately, it just got a bobble on it and hit him on the shin instead of the side of the foot and went wide of the post.

"Those second-half chances created were probably the best three chances in the whole of the game for both sides.

"We didn't convert one and we were left with a point instead of three.

"But at the end of the day, it's four points our of six, it's another clean sheet, it's the basis of good things to help us get out of the position we are in."

Roberts was handed his gilt-edged opportunity when Pedersen played him in.

However, with the goal at his mercy, he stabbed his right-foot shot agonisingly wide of the post, much to the relief of the vast majority of a crowd of 44,680 at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland could hardly have complained had Roberts' aim been truer having failed to make the most of their share of the possession.

Indeed, had it not been for Fulop's earlier heroics, they might have been behind long before his glaring miss.

The Hungarian turned Pedersen's 54th-minute free-kick on to the post, and then blocked a Andrews' effort after the midfielder had broken through on the hour.

Sunderland huffed and puffed without ever really testing Paul Robinson, but Phil Bardsley, Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse all went close on an afternoon when they never looked like repeating their four-goal bursts against West Brom and Hull.

Caretaker manager Ricky Sbragia was both satisfied and relieved with a point which extends his side's unbeaten run to three games.

He said: "The longer the game goes on, the one thing you don't want to do is lose the game, that's important.

"We were nearly caught in the last minute - thank God, he missed the target - but maybe we deserved that bit of luck.

"I thought overall, we deserved the draw - whether Sam would disagree with that, I'm not sure - but the longer the game went on, the draw looked a safe bet for me."