Sunderland could only get a point against Charlton Athletic at the weekend as they were made to rue squandered chances in the first-half at The Valley.

Overall, it's been a decent enough start for the Black Cats this season but they should really have more points than they do as they game could have been over by half-time.

Eventually, with them finishing the game with ten men, they had to settle for a point and so here we're looking at three things we learned about the men from Wearside...

Chances need to be taken

It's no exaggeration, Sunderland should have had the game won by half-time.

Bailey Wright's header was saved fantastically well by Ben Amos but several other chances for the Black Cats should have been put away.

Danny Graham was blocked twice on the line whilst he also fired over when free in the box - a real missed opportunity for the away side.

Success down the right-hand side

Sunderland provided plenty of threat down the right with O'Nien regularly getting forward and Josh Scowen also breaking into that channel from his central midfield role.

A fair few crosses came in from that side and presented Sunderland with good chances but, as mentioned, they could not take them.

A positive from that match, though, nonetheless.

Leadbitter class

You know what you're getting from Grant Leadbitter and he once again underlined his quality in midfield.

Charlton's opposing numbers could not really control the battle in the middle of the park and Leadbitter was one of the main reasons for that.

He was vocal all game, as you would expect, and battled throughout as he built a good base for Sunderland to build their attacks on.