With the sides locked together deep into injury time, Morten Gamst Pedersen slid a pass into striker Jason Roberts, who rounded keeper Marton Fulop before stabbing the ball towards the empty net.

But as former Black Cats defender and coach Allardyce rose to acclaim three more precious Barclays Premier League points, the ball ran agonisingly the wrong side of the post to hand the Wearsiders a reprieve.

Allardyce said: "It was just a bobble. It caught him [Roberts] on the shin instead of on the side of the foot, so he didn't get a clean contact on it, unfortunately.

"I was convinced it was in. I was nearly up and dancing. He is bitterly disappointed, but that's life, at the end of the day.

"He got himself into position, made a great run and a great first touch and unfortunately, just a bobble cost us a fantastic win.

"But we are all very pleased with the commitment of the players and I am pleased with, particularly, the second-half performance.

"I am delighted with two clean sheets and, hopefully, we can go on from here and play Manchester City and try to gain another three points."

The draw, which came six days after Allardyce launched his reign at Ewood Park with a 3-0 win over Stoke, left them still in 19th place in the table, but only three points adrift of Middlesbrough in 17th ahead of tomorrow's clash with City.

And they could have been two points closer to the Teessiders even without Roberts' glaring miss.

Fulop had earlier rescued the Wearsiders with fine second-half saves from Pedersen and Keith Andrews on an afternoon when strikers Djibril Cisse and Kenwyne Jones misfired badly.

Allardyce said: "When the golden chance came right at the very end, if that had gone in, there was no coming back for Sunderland, and it would have been a huge, huge three points for us.

"But for me, it is pleasing, the response of the players and their commitment.

"They are very experienced in the Premier League, and we are going to need all that to get out of this position.

"But unfortunately, that little bit of luck deserted us, so we only got one point instead of three."

Caretaker Sunderland boss Ricky Sbragia worked under Allardyce at Bolton, and knew exactly what to expect from his new club.

With that in mind, he was happy enough with a point that extends his side's unbeaten run to three games.

He said: "Defensively, we did extremely well. Maybe on the attacking side, we just lacked a little bit of edge, but after the last two games, it can be expected.

"It would be nice to win three or four, but if you asked me if I am happy with 0-0, I would say definitely.

"When the lad was through with a minute to go, I thought we had lost it."