Sam Allardyce was unable to hide his frustration following Sunderland's scoreless draw against West Brom, but remains optimistic about his team's chances of staying up.
Sunderland could have scored through Jermain Defoe, Lee Cattermole, Jan Kirchhoff and Fabio Borini at Stadium of Light on Saturday, but they all failed to beat goalkeeper Ben Foster.
Dame N'Doye did find the net late on, but had his goal disallowed for offside and Allardyce was adamant Sunderland deserved more than a draw.
"It's hard to find the right words to describe what has been a disappointing day, but also a very pleasing one," Allardyce said at a news conference. "Without any question that was the most outstanding performance I've seen since I've been here and we've had some really good ones.
"There could have been better finishing, but there was also some great goalkeeping; if we hadn't been offside at the end and it had been a yard the other way it would have given us all the delight we deserved.
"We've never deserved three points more than against West Brom and with the position that we're in, it has made the result difficult to take.
"I can't give anything but praise to the players for the way they applied themselves and the way they played today.
"We still have a game in hand and with seven games to go I have to believe we will win more games than we draw or lose."
Sunderland sit 18th in the Premier League table and trail 17th-placed Norwich by four points, although they do have a game in hand over the Canaries.
