STEVE Cotterill blamed late defensive mistakes as Burnley threw away a two-goal lead against Sunderland.

The Clarets slipped to ninth in the Championship after drawing 2-2 against the Black Cats at Turf Moor on Saturday.

Teenage striker Kyle Lafferty looked to have wrapped up three points for Cotterill's men with his first ever brace at professional level.

But Sunderland stormed back for a share of the spoils with two long-range goals in the final 10 minutes.

Grant Leadbitter halved the deficit before a stoppage-time leveller from David Connolly sealed the visitors' comeback.

"We had done enough to win the game," said Clarets boss Cotterill.

"But two lapses of concentration in our final third have cost us. The game was going nowhere really.

"If it was going to go anywhere, we felt we may have scored another.

"I don't think Danny Coyne had a shot to save before they scored.

"When they changed their formation, we changed ours to get some fresh legs out there and to make sure that didn't happen with Leadbitter.

"Late on, we've gone for a header that we don't need to go for.

"We've ended up going gung-ho for a ball that we don't need to compete for and that's cost us.

"And with it being the 80th minute and 91st minute, it's just a real sickener."

Cotterill added: "But there you go. Football has a habit of coming back and biting you, and it has bitten us.

"We just have to take it - there is nothing we can do about it - and move onto next week's game.

"Somewhere along the line, it will happen for us this season."

Steve Jones missed a terrific chance to seal the points for Burnley moments after Leadbitter had dragged Sunderland back into the game.

The Clarets winger, one-on-one with Black Cats goalkeeper Darren Ward, wasted the opportunity taking too much time over his shot.

Cotterill added: "I was convinced Steve Jones was going to score when he went through one-on-one on his right foot, but he didn't "In that area, we've seen him score those type of goals. It was a good tackle by the defender and that's a disappointment for us."

While Lafferty stole the show with his double salvo, Cotterill believes the 19-year-old's strike partner Gifton Noel-Williams merited the man-of-the-match award.

"Gifton Noel-Williams was first-class. He was fantastic," said Cotterill.

"He was our star-player."