Dalglish concedes draw was a fair result

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish says Sunderland deserved to leave Anfield with a point after they played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

The hosts took the lead through Luis Suarez’s glancing header but were pegged back by a fierce volley from Sebastian Larsson in the second half in their English Premier League opener.

Suarez had missed a penalty early in the game after being brought down by Kieran Richardson, who received a yellow card.

Dalglish said Richardson should have been given his marching orders, but that Sunderland also deserved a point.

“I suppose nine-and-a-half out of 10 referees would have sent Kieran off,” Dalglish said.

“You don’t want to see people sent off. I don’t know what the rule book says but it was a clear goalscoring opportunity. Luis Suarez was one-on-one with the goalkeeper – you can’t get any clearer than that.”

“I think over the game, for their effort and commitment, a draw was probably about right. They worked really hard.”

Meanwhile, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce said his team had taken a ‘deserved point’ from the clash.

“Well we got off to the worst possible start, made it very difficult for ourselves and got away with it in the first 15-20 minutes to be honest,” Bruce said.

“That was a bad period but the longer the game went on, we posed more of a threat to them and we deserved to get something out of it.”

“The wonder strike from Seb (Larsson) has got us a point, but overall when you look at the context of it, I can’t really remember my goalkeeper (Simon Mignolet) making too many saves and we’ve come away with a deserved point.”