FULL-BACK Phil Bardsley was gutted that Sunderland came away from their trip to Stamford Bridge empty-handed.

The Black Cats put up a stoic display in an end-to-end game but lacked a clinical edge where it mattered as chances that they have been putting away in the past six weeks were thrown away.

However, one small grain of comfort Bardsley and Co can take was the relief expressed by the Chelsea contingent at the final whistle as the West London side knew this see-saw game could have gone the other way and Phil concedes that that is a probable sign of how far the club has come under new boss Martin O’Neill.

He said: “We had six of seven chances there and we deserved to get something out of the game. Some of those were clear-cut ones and it’s disappointing not to come away with something.

“The gaffer said to us after the game that we should feel hard done by. He said that the Chelsea bench had been celebrating at the final whistle as if they had won the league. I just felt we should have got something.

“It does show how far we have come that we feel like we do. It shows the mentality of us that we came here desperate to show that we would not be beaten. Unfortunately, we have lost, but we didn’t deserve to. The lads have done themselves really proud.

“The manager firmly believed we should have won the game. You look at the chances we did create plenty and we should have at least got a result, if not the win.”

“We defended strongly. We stuck at that task again despite the change we had to make.

“The new gaffer has brought in plenty of confidence and belief. We are going out thinking we can win and not lose. We have to keep progressing and hopefully we will take that in to the next few games.

“It would have been great had we scored one or two today, but we are going about things the right way, which is great.”

Meanwhile, Bardsley hit out at Chelsea’s Fernando Torres and referee Phil Dowd. The former was eventually booked for a dive in the penalty area but Bardsley feels the Spaniard tried to con the ref in Chelsea’s earlier penalty claim – even though it did look as if the Blues had a strong case. While Dowd annoyed Phil and the rest of the Black Cats for failing to spot Ashley Cole’s blatant shove on Nicklas Bendtner to deny Sunderland a spot-kick.

He added: “When Torres was coming at me I have sort of stuck out my leg and he has flashed past me, clipped me, and he has gone down far too easily.

“Then we went down the other end and it was a stone-waller for me. Ashley Cole went through the back of Bendtner and anywhere else on the pitch it would have been a free-kick, so it was a penalty for me. The ref said he didn’t see it – it was frustrating.”