True redemption, perhaps, would have been to score with a Panenka, but Enzo Le Fée didn’t quite have the chutzpah for that. His duffed dink at Brentford in January was the low point of one of Sunderland’s two worst performances of the season, but he converted from the spot with eight minutes remaining to earn a draw in a battle of two physically aggressive and well-drilled teams who must both look at the chaos elsewhere and be thinking again of top-half finishes.

It had seemed that it would be a tale of Brentford’s newfound strength in depth and a second-half turnaround as they overcame a rocky first period to have the better of the second after a triple change at half-time, having already lost their captain Nathan Collins to a calf strain. But instead it was a Sunderland substitute who made the key contribution, Wilson Isidor being held by Keane Lewis-Potter at the back post to earn the penalty.