Stephane Sessegnon scored with two minutes remaining to rescue a point for Sunderland at home to Aston Villa this afternoon.
Hosts Sunderland created the first opportunity of the match, but captain John O'Shea headed Sebastian Larsson's free kick wide of goal.
Darren Bent, returning to Sunderland for the first time since his January switch to Villa, was then presented with a chance, but he turned Gabriel Agbonlahor's cross wide of goal.
After both teams had exchanged goalscoring chances, it was Villa who broke the deadlock after 20 minutes. Having launched a counter-attack, Alan Hutton found Stiliyan Petrov outside the area and the Villa skipper curled his side into the lead.
The home side were only behind for 11 minutes though, with Connor Wickham claiming his first Premier League goal for the club. Sessegnon was architect, crossing for the 18-year-old who took one touch before shooting past Shay Given.
Wickham went close to adding his second moments later, but his header was cleared off the line by Villa full-back Stephen Warnock.
Both sides failed to carve out any goalscoring chances after the restart until Dunne struck five minutes from time. Petrov dispatched a free kick into the area which the Republic or Ireland international headed past Simon Mingolet.
In reply, Villa failed to deal with a deep free kick from Larsson and Sessegnon was on hand to score from close range and ensure that the spoils were shared.
Liam Apicella
